Severe depression can be pretty obvious.
A person can lose all joy and become fairly non-functional,
but that's not always the way it looks.
Sometimes there are more subtle signs that suggest
that you may be struggling with depression.
I'm Dr.Tracey Marks, a psychiatrist
and I make mental health education videos.
Here are 10 ways that depression can look.
Any one of these things in isolation doesn't have to mean
that you are depressed but it can be a signal
to take a deeper look into whether or not you or a loved one
may really be depressed.
Number one, apathy and excessive boredom.
Apathy is having very little interest in things.
It's like complete non-investment in anything.
Your partner could say, I'm going to empty our bank account
and take a trip around the world to find myself.
Your reaction is, okay.
Your response to everything is whatever,
because that's how you feel.
Every everything is meaningless, so it is whatever.
Boredom is related to apathy because it results
from being unable to maintain interest in what's around you.
And that might happen if you're alone on an island
with no internet, that what would we do
without the internet?
But here talking about having access to things
that normally engage you, but you're so disengaged
that nothing seems to stimulate you.
This is what's going on in the minds of some people
who just want to spend all day sleeping
because it's painful to be conscious
and feel nothing off all day.
Number two, feeling everything is hard.
Someone could say, will you check the status of the order
that you made online the other day.
Now, all it takes to do that is to find the device,
go to the website, log in, remember your login credentials
if they're not saved on your device, click your account,
then on orders, then check tracking.
Even though that sounds like it's a lot of steps,
for the non-depressed person, that all just flows,
and you don't even think about the individual steps.
But for the person who's struggling with depression,
that one task becomes 50 steps and it feels overwhelming.
And this can be for a couple of reasons.
Depression can make you feel like you have brain fog.
You're not as sharp and you don't process things as quickly.
Also depression can make you feel indecisive.
So with this task of looking up an order,
you can get hung up on do you use your phone or the laptop?
Oh, but wait, my tablets just in the next room,
do I get up and get it?
What if it's not charged?
Where's my charger?
It's exhausting.
So this is the emotion behind your feeling
but behaviorally it can look like procrastination.
You're putting a lot of things off, why?
Because it just seems like a lot of work.
Number three, you're easily irritated.
Even tiny things can annoy you.
And this doesn't have to look like you snapping
at people all the time.
This can be more subtle.
Like you were in a pretty decent mood
until your elderly dog's diaper leaked
and now there's poop on the floor.
And now you're in a snit for the rest of the day.
But dogs aren't supposed to wear diapers.
He can't help it, that it shifted on him.
And you know that, and here's the difference between anger
from a personality disorder person and a depressed person.
The personality disordered person can feel entitled
to be angry at these kinds of miss steps.
But the depressed person will often feel ashamed
that they spend the entire day irritated by small things.
Number four, being disgusted by sex.
It's common to lose interest in sex when you're depressed.
But basic loss of interests can be mistaken
for being too busy, sleep deprived or stress.
And in these cases, you can go on a nice vacation,
rest up over a long weekend, and then the interest is back.
But depression can ramp up the loss of interests
into discussed at the thought of it.
You can even feel intensely turned off
from your partners touch.
You may say, what if my partner has turned into a burping
and farting machine or physically let themselves go?
Okay, there may be situational factors
that affect your desire for your partner,
like having relationship problems.
But here's the real test of this.
What is your fantasy life like?
We're sexually beings, how responsive are you
to seeing other attractive people or thinking about
other arousing situations?
Getting older or having medical problems
can lessen these responses, but you should still have
some degree of sexual thoughts that feel positive,
intensely negative thoughts and zero arousal
is a sign that somebody isn't right.
Number five, it takes longer to get out of bed.
You may not want to spring out of a warm cozy bed
in the winter, or you may sleep in on weekends,
and that's not what I'm talking about.
With this sign, on more days than night,
you feel you have to drag yourself out of bed.
Everything feels slow, your limbs may even feel heavier
and you can just lie there and think okay,
I'm working on getting the strength to get up.
And before you know it, you've been lying there an hour
and you didn't realize that much time had passed.
Number six, low stimulation doesn't bother you.
You're able to sit in a room and stare in the space
without needing to be stimulated by conversation,
your phone or television.
It's hard for a non-depressed person
who's not intentionally meditating
to be in a trance-like state for an extended period of time.
Try it yourself, see how long you can sit
with nothing going on around you and no one talking to you.
And this isn't something that you're going to notice.
This is something a loved one will notice
that you're just sitting and staring at and a space.
Number seven ruminates on negativity.
This is also something other people
will notice more than you.
Your internal experience will be that you're thinking
about things and maybe even worrying about some issues.
The person in your presence will notice
that you're always talking about negative stuff
or you can never see a silver lining in things.
Maybe you're watching the news all day and then posting
on social media about all of the horrors of the world.
And then people unfollow you because they don't want to see
that in their feed when they're trying to relax.
Number eight, sleeping problems.
This becomes more of assign if you're normally sleep well,
but for no apparent reason, you start having broken sleep
or you're waking up a couple of hours earlier than usual.
You may be taking longer to get to sleep,
you could be sleeping much longer like 10 to 12 hours a day.
And I say a day, because this includes napping
during the day, even if you've slept a good eight hours
the night before.
Number nine, having a lot of physical problems,
like aches and pains and digestive issues.
Some people will have a lot of headaches.
You go to the doctor, and they can't seem to find a cost
and tell you it's stress.
We call this somatization, soma means body.
And some people feel depression more physically
and have more body complaints.
Number 10 is appetite increase,
especially craving carbohydrates.
This includes alcohol as it is high in carbohydrates.
If you've always eaten high carbohydrate diets,
then this would be, if there was a substantial increase.
Maybe you're putting on a lot of weight.
Carbohydrate consumption increases serotonin production
and you usually get a slight increase
in your mood about 30 minutes after eating
or drinking something high in carbs.
The feeling is temporary though.
According to Florida psychology,
the reason behind this behavior has less to do
with carbohydrates and serotonin, and more to do
with having an oral fixation.
An oral fixation occurs when you have unmet needs
during your early development.
So in times of distress, you're drawn
to oral stimulation to self-sooth.
Oral stimulation would include eating, chewing gum,
sucking on candy, nail-biting and smoking.
Whether or not you agree with this point of view,
the thing for here is are you using food to sooth yourself?
These 10 signs are soft signs of depression
and none of them alone mean you are depressed,
but if you find yourself doing or thinking these things
on a consistent basis and not just one bad day,
then you should consider being evaluated for depression
by either your doctor or therapist.
You don't always have to see a psychiatrist.
Primary care doctors treat a lot of people
for mild to moderate depression.
You wouldn't need to see a therapist though
or non-medication treatment.
For more on depression, check out either of these two videos
on what it's like to be depressed.
See you next time.