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
im only 14 and i just told my mother i need help two weeks ago i started 9th grade and i have been hurting since 3rd grade i cry everynight before i fall asleep and wish i could go through with suicide and wake up feeling better in the morning i am always downing myself i feel ugly and i used to cry at night thinking of what i had said or done that day wishing i hadnt done something iv never cut myself but think about it it is very hard for me to understand what people are saying half the time and have to make the person repeat and also i can not remeber things right away and it takes time for me to make decisions she is geting me help but i question myself that it will turn up nothing wrong with me
Dear Taylor,
You are right – you do have depression, and you must not keep living and feeling this way! It is not fair to you, and you can get help. Depression is very treatable. Maybe your Mom has some reasons why she isn’t responding to you, and hopefully you can show her this answer from me and that will help her move forward and get help for you. You need to see a good psychiatrist and you will most likely get some medications. I would guess that the psychiatrist would recommend a therapist too. (If you or your family is interested in holistic medicine, you can try that too, but in my experience acupuncture and homeopathy can improve on medications, but when a depression is severe as it sounds like yours is, medication comes first.) If your Mom is still resistant to getting you help, ask your guidance counselor, the nurse or even a regular teacher you like at school. They should be able to help you find out what kind of health insurance your family has that can be used to pay for this. If your family doesn’t have health insurance, the guidance counselor should be able to look for a place close by where lower income families can get help for reduced costs.
Your worries, that a professional will tell you there is nothing wrong, is the depression effecting your thinking. You definitely do have something wrong, depression, and it can be made a lot better – or even go away entirely. Your were wise and courageous to write to me, so don’t ever quit on yourself – you can get better!! If you want, let me know how things go for you.
My mom actually is really supportive and wants to help me your reply has gave me what I need to get help I’m looking forward to improving my life
I’ve had an eating disorder since about 6th grade, it never got to the point where it was physically obvious to my friends and family, but I suspect my mom did notice when my eating habits changed. I never got professional help for this disorder and dealt with it (maybe still am) all through out middle school and high school. I slowly started drifting away from those habits but didn’t stop completely. I’m currently in my second year of college. First year of college I noticed that mood swings and stressing out became much more common than they already were but I didn’t think much of it because this didn’t happen on a daily basis so I just assumed it was part of the college life. Every single one of the points you made except for having a family history of depression applied to me. This scares me, I don’t want to feel like this. I started smoking marijuana and it helps with my mood swings and eating habits for a good portion of the day. Even though it makes me feel better (only reason I use it), it doesn’t take away the fact that its illegal so I would rather have something else, (unless its legalized).I don’t like the affects feeling like this has on my relationships with friends and family, and my college performance. I don’t know what to do and I feel like it gets worse every day.
Becky, I would say that you are medicating yourself and in not only an illegal way but a not “regulated as to amount needed” way.
Also, marijuana is addicting, and definitely injures the brain. Good medication has none of these attributes. Plus you say the pot is no longer very effective. In fact, if someone has depression in their early 20s and it is not properly medicated, it gets harder and harder for medication, or anything , to bring the person’s mood up to normal. I think you are playing with fire and need to go to a competent psychiatrist and a therapist and get a handle on what could be messing up your life very badly.
i have all symptoms that u mentioned
Alice,
Do take care of yourself: find the right therapist who you like, who likes you, and who can guide you where you need to go. My clients with severe depression take medication, go to acupuncture, see a homeopathic person. You don’t have to live like this, and you shouldn’t. I assume you reached out with your statement in hopes of getting something back. You can do it!