Every year about 300 million people get sick with depression and these are only diagnosed cases! Even more people suffer from hidden clinical depression. Depression is a serious thing. This is not a weakness of character, but a real disease. Classic case clinical depression looks really scary: a person loses the ability to be happy, sometimes he does not have enough strength even to wash his hair or brush his teeth, he can not communicate normally with loved ones and seriously thinks about suicide.
If there are all these symptoms, then the picture is clear-the person’s symptoms, then the picture is clear – the person needs to be saved. But sometimes neither the patient nor his relatives see or understand that the person is teetering on the edge. Not sleeping well? Constantly annoyed about nothing? Well, it doesn’t happen to anyone. However, these are all symptoms of latent depression. If you dismiss them, the result can be very bad.
What to pay attention to in order to calculate the signs of hidden depression
Sudden mood swings. A person sometimes cries, then laughs, then takes offense, then confesses love, then is rude for no reason. He overreacts to any external stimuli and is not always able to control his emotions.
Changes in eating behavior. Suddenly your appetite disappears, and even your favorite sweets lie untouched on the table. Or Vice versa-the patient wakes up at three in the morning and sweeps out of the refrigerator all the stock.
Sleep disturbance. All the sheep are counted, and there is no sleep in one eye. Even if you manage to doze off before dawn, the dream is disturbing and does not bring relief. Or at the other extreme, a person sleeps ten hours a day. I’d like to sleep longer, but it’s time to go to work. Any violation of the usual sleep rhythms should be an alarm signal.
Philosophical reflection. If a person suddenly begins to think about the meaning of life and its transience, religion and the futility of being, this is also a reason to wonder whether everything is OK with his state of mind. Especially if such thoughts are Intrusive, come back again and again and cause a sense of hopelessness and anxiety.
Psychosomatic pain. For example, a person often has a headache or stomach ache, or a tingling heart. However, visits to specialists and expensive tests do not give any results. Doctors just throw up their hands – Yes, you, dear, are healthy, stop pretending. Depression likes to disguise itself as various physical ailments.
Depression or not?
To distinguish stress and chronic fatigue from depression, you should take a full two-week vacation. During this time, you can not plan any serious business. Good intentions from the series “I will go on vacation and make repairs in the bathroom”, leave until better times, and devote these two weeks entirely to rest and recovery.
Chat with friends, get some sleep, watch your favorite movies, cook something delicious, and spend as much time outdoors as possible. If after two weeks the alarming symptoms have not disappeared, it means that it is not the usual fatigue. And this is bad news. The good news is that depression is curable.
When depressive disorder is in any case impossible to do two things: to expect that the disease will pass by itself, and to self-medicate. Ideally, you should consult a good psychotherapist-psychiatrist. They will assess your condition, determine if you are depressed, and prescribe appropriate treatment. In the treatment of clinical depression, the most effective method is a combination of psychotherapy and taking antidepressants. If you do not have money for psychotherapy sessions, you can contact a local neuropsychiatric clinic. There is no need to be afraid of this visit. No one will put you on the register or report a visit to your place of work. These are practices from the distant Soviet past.
Don’t blame yourself for being a victim of clinical depression
When treating depression, it is important to enlist the support of loved ones. Tell them about your condition and let them know that you expect help and understanding. For the time being, exclude communication with those who are sure that depression is the invention of idlers and idlers. If a really close person thinks so, ask them to read articles about this problem. Maybe then he will understand the seriousness of what is happening.
Most importantly, don’t blame yourself for being a victim of depression. I don’t think it was up to you. And willpower has nothing to do with it. Depressive disorder is usually caused by a complex combination of psychological, social, and physiological factors. For example, recent research has shown that intestinal bacteria can be one of the causes of depression. They certainly have nothing to do with your willpower.
Source: Daria magazine # 24 2018