Mental health articles

The symptoms of depression  in women and men tend to fall into four main groupings: emotions or feelings; physical symptoms; thought patterns; and behavioural symptoms.

Emotions: feeling like crying a lot; feeling alone (even in company); feeling sad, depressed upset, hopeless, despairing, or just numb; feeling anxious, irritable, or unreasonably angry; feeling lethargic; having no interest or enjoyment in things (even things that used to be enjoyable); low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness and/or guilt.

Physical symptoms: loss of energy, lethargy, tiredness, or fatigue; restlessness or agitation; changes in appetite (either poor or increased) and resulting weight loss or gain; difficulties in sleeping (either not falling asleep easily, not returning to sleep after waking during the night, early morning wakening, or, conversely, a desire to sleep a great deal of the time); headaches; indigestion; stomach pains; irregular periods.

Thoughts: difficulty in concentrating or a slowness in thinking; indecisiveness; loss of confidence in self; having an unusually negative or gloomy outlook; thinking that everything is hopeless or that the worst will happen; negative self-concept, selfreproach and self-blame, even self-hate; recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.

Behaviour: having difficulty in doing anything; neglecting everyday tasks, like regular meals and personal hygiene; putting off doing things, even things that one normally enjoys; having short occasional bursts of energy, and then usually not completing things; cutting oneself off from friends, family, regular support, or social activities; difficulty in maintaining regular work hours.

Tags: depression, symptoms