What Does Depression Look Like? 10 Key Symptoms of Depression

Depression doesn't wear only one face.  While it's important to remember that clinical depression can only be diagnosed by a doctor or mental health professional, here are some things you can look for in a person with depression.  If you are at all concerned that a person's depression may be immediately life threatening, always call 911 (in the US) or your local emergency number immediately.

1. She may "feel depressed" and sad, crying more easily than usual, and ruminating or "chewing over" negative thoughts over and over.  She may describe this as feeling "empty" or "down". 
2. He may have very low energy, moving and speaking more slowly than normal. He may slump his shoulders and look down frequently.  This has been described by depression sufferers as "swimming through molassas", comparing the air to molassas' thickness and stickiness.
3. She may have difficulty remembering things or have difficulty retaining new information. She may have difficulty making decisions, or following through on decisions she has made.  This is a primary reason why it is difficult to treat people with depression, as they may want and agree to help, but be unable or unwilling to follow through on appointments or simply forget them.
4. He may be irritable and agitated, especially when pressed on something he doesn't want to do or feels he can't do.  This is especially true in children and adolescents, who may "act out" without seeming to care about consequences.  This does not look like what most people think of when they think of depression, so it can be hard to identify.
5. She may feel or say she feels "worthless" and "useless".  She may also feel guilt or full of shame, above what most people would feel in similar situations.  For instance, a mother with depression whose child does badly in school may feel that she is a 'terrible mother' and the child would be 'better off without her', even though she is a good parent and the child's school problems are not because of the mother.
6. He may lose or gain a lot of weight when not trying to lose or gain weight.  Some people react to feelings of depression by eating more or different foods in an effort to self-medicate, while others lose all joy in eating and eat only because they have to.  ("A lot" of weight is 5% of body weight, or 10 lbs per month on a 200 lb person).
7. She may stop enjoying her favorite activities, whether she continues to participate or not.  She may withdraw from people close to her and express that she has "lost her joy" or the "creeping black" is moving in.  She may spend all or most of her waking hours watching TV, reading, surfing the internet, or doing other activities that are passive and receptive.  This symptom is often mislabeled as 'laziness', when it is actually a key symptom that a person needs help.
8. He may feel "exhausted" or sleepy every day, even when he has had plenty of rest. For a person in this state, mental tasks are just as hard as physical tasks, and the person feels just as tired after making an unpleasant phone call he had to make as he would after washing a sink load of dishes.
9. She may have difficulty sleeping (insomnia) or difficulty staying awake (hypersomnia).  This is experienced many different ways, from not being able to go to sleep at all, to waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to return to sleep, to sleeping as much as sixteen hours a day.  She may nap frequently instead of getting a full night's sleep or in addition to it.  
10. He may have recurring thoughts of death. He may think about death and dying a lot, in a lot of different ways, from wondering how it would feel to wishing he dared to do ti, to thinking up ways to do it, to attempting suicide. If the person in front of you tells you he is thinking of death, get him to a mental health professional as soon as possible.  If he is saying he is going to kill himself and has a plan for how to do it, call 911 immediately. 

Some people showing these symptoms may be experiencing "situational depression" (also called "adjustment disorder"), which means they are responding to something in their life, like a death or divorce, that makes them unhappy, while others may be experiencing one form or another of chemical depression, up to and including Major Depression (also called Major Depressive Disorder).   These symptoms can also appear as a result of depression that is caused by substance abuse or substance withdrawal. It is also possible that the person with the symptoms has a medical condition that is causing them.  This is why a referral to a doctor is one of the first things mental health professionals do when someone comes to them for help.

In all of these cases, the symptoms are real to the person feeling them.  When you help a person who is depressed, remembering that one fact will go a long way toward making sure that you're doing the most good you can.

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