Self Evaluation for Depression
Depression is a serious disease; it steals your life away. Many people put up with depression, because they are too depressed to take any action or don’t realize they have it. 80 to 90% of depressions can be treated. You can read about the types of depression and their treatment in: Types of Depression.
Below is a self test you can take if you think you might have depression. If you have more than half of these symptoms and they have persisted over time, it is worthwhile to seek professional help.
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Suicidal thoughts or impulses. This is a dangerous situation and you must get professional help now.
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Recurring negative thoughts about yourself; low self esteem.
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Ruminating thoughts.
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Feeling hopeless, helpless, inadequate.
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Low mood.
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Low energy, feeling sluggish or that you don’t want to move. Having trouble completing things, procrastination.
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Trouble getting out of bed in the morning.
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Little or no interest in doing things that you previously enjoyed, avoiding people.
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Problems with mental acuity like sharpness of thought and poor memory.
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Trouble making decisions.
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Irritability or anger in excess.
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Change in sleep patterns such as oversleeping or difficulty falling or staying asleep, waking in the early morning and not being able to go back to sleep.
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Changes in your appetite, eating more or less, food seems unappealing or you crave carbohydrates.
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Loss of interest in sex. Loss of pleasure in everyday things. Feeling flat.
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Daily mood change, for example: you always feel worse in the morning and better by evening.
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Family history of depression, other mental or emotional problems or alcoholism – either treated or not.
You are welcome to Contact Me and I will be happy to talk with you or make an appointment for further evaluation.
The best information i have found exactly here. Keep going Thank you
Many of these symptoms really hit home for me because its how I feel most of the time. Actually, an hour before reading this blog, I was thinking of the 1st symptom as my only way out. I need help mentally :( I feel I have no purpose in life.
You don’t say if you are intending to find a therapist and get treatment. I certainly hope you do, depression is very treatable, and you don’t have to feel like this! If you want more direction on how to get help, do write again and ask me your specific questions. I wish you the best.
Oh wow,
except for maybe 1 thing they all appeal to me.
I want to hurt myself, and I have tried to stop, but cutting seems like the only way for me to cope.
I am in a lot of stress; I move a lot, but that’s not an excuse.
I want help, but then I don’t.
It feels too good to stop.
Maybe medication will help, maybe therapy.
But I’m not sure that I want help.
Yes, and you won’t know if medication or therapy would help if you don’t try them out.
Take your courage in your own two hands and check out my article on How to Choose the Right Therapist. I see people make changes in their lives and become a lot happier — all the time, every day. Go for what you want – you deserve it.
I came here to read your article on battered wife syndrome, (which I believe was excellent by the way), to try to explain why my wife of 28 years stayed with me all these years.
Not that I abused her physically, I never have, but I think my excessive moodiness, ups and downs were like the psychological abuse of the cultists you mentioned in that article.
Interestingly, it also explains my relationships with several of my children.
Anyway, that led me to your depression articles.
Interesting that the comments to this post were extremely depressed. I felt sorry for them.
Anyway, hopelessness makes depression sound wimpy to me. It’s semantics, I know.
Other than a family history of depression (none that I am aware of, that is) I, too, am all of the above.
As for your “find a therapist” solution, I don’t think paying someone to listen to my boring tale of “woe is me” will solve anything except maybe help their cash flow.
I am currently crafting my goodbyes and am fairly certain Sunday will be my last day. We’ll see.
Thanks for your insights.
I believe you that your life isn’t worth living as it is, but it doesn’t have to stay this way. You owe it to your family ( and yourself in my opinion) to look into all the options of how to experience life differently before you decide to die. Your kids would profit enormously from having a father that got better, got over his depression, and was a good Dad to them. Besides looking up battered women stuff, look up the effects of parental suicide on children.
It is bad.
You don’t have to have a family history of depression to have clinical depression. Clinical depression is VERY TREATABLE! You can get better, and therapists ( those who are more than just nice support people) and medication (prescribed by someone who knows what they are doing) definitely could save your life and make you want to live. Your bad feelings about how you treat your family is not enough reason to leave them – - You can get so you don’t do that any more. Your behavior is very likely related to how lousy you feel. There are ways to get to competent professionals. I’d help you out about that if you want.
I deal with people every day who have clinical depression and see them get satisfying,good lives. I’m not just making money off them. Poor therapists give therapy a bad name. A good therapists and the right medication does make a huge difference in lives. Mine for example. Been there.
Good therapists can do all kinds of things – show you how to deal with your thoughts and your emotions. Look into your history with you – read some of my blogs about how therapy helps.
You are contemplating hurting everyone who loves you and /or needs you and giving up on yourself. Then there’s no chance of you getting better. I think that is a really bad idea. You just haven’t experienced what therapy and meds can do. You don’t know what is available to you. Don’t you owe it to everyone involved to check this stuff out and not assume your prejudices are the end all truth? If you live in or around Madison, by all means call me. If you don’t – call a suicide hot line to start with it – you can find them in the phone book or look it up on the web under your town/ state.
I hope you give yourself and your family a chance.
Ann