In this week's video we're looking at depression we're going to look at what it is we're going to
look at how it differs from anxiety and we're going to look at what it feels like to have
depression this video is all about information on depression to help you recognize those symptoms
or to recognize those symptoms as someone else that you know so to begin with when we talk
about depression first of all it's important to understand that it's not obvious just by looking
at someone to tell that they're depressed because inside their mind you don't know what's going on
there could be thousands or hundreds of thoughts that are going on now depression is much more
than feeling worried or upset about something it's far more complex and it's different to anxiety too
anxiety is usually a group of different conditions such as phobias generalized anxiety disorder or
panic disorders now you can get some forms of anxiety with depression as well but it does come
with many other symptoms too which we're going to discuss in this video now if you are someone
who suffers with anxiety i do have a video on that topic too feel free to check it out if you think
it might be helpful i'm gonna leave a link to up here and in the description below so now let's
talk about what you may feel if you're suffering from depression first of all please do remember
depression is very specific to yourself you might feel something else other people might feel
something else and it comes in different levels from mild to severe now i'm going to work through
the different types of symptoms and different types of thoughts that you have if you are
suffering with depression or symptoms of it and if you have any of these i would highly recommend
that you speak to a healthcare professional as soon as possible so when you have depression
you may feel sad and this kind of sadness starts to get in the way that you live your
life for example you might feel unmotivated you can't be bothered to do things that you used to
get pleasure out of for example your hobbies your activities seeing friends and you may even find it
difficult to make decisions to make commitments to get things done and this low mood may tend to
last longer than is normal it might last more than a few days it might last a few weeks it
might last a few months so so this is something that starts to happen when you have depression
another thing is also to remember if this is lasting for two weeks or more you really need to
speak to a healthcare professional or speak to one of the charities which i'm going to leave links to
in the descriptions below and also speak to your friends speak to your family make them aware
let them know how you're feeling this is really important too now another sign of depression
is that you could have a lingering feeling of hopelessness or feeling helpless and you might
even cry a little more than you usually do or be a bit more tearful than you usually are and this
can be brought on as a result of feeling guilty or if you lose a loved one this can really happen
as well also people who live on their own are a lot more likely to feel like this but it's really
important to remember if you're having any of these sort of feelings you've got your healthcare
professional that's what they're there for they're there to listen they're there to speak to you so
speak to your healthcare professional and another thing i want to discuss is having low self-esteem
so feeling worthless or not being as confident as what you used to be so these are things that
you need to look out for now if you do suffer from low self-esteem as well i do have a video on that
topic which you might find helpful i will leave links to up here and in the description below too
so previously i mentioned that depression has different severity so you have mild to severe so
what we've been speaking about so far is more the mild to moderate kind of symptoms that you'd have
but when we're going into more severe thoughts we're talking about negative thoughts we're
talking about thoughts of self-harm suicidal thoughts thinking about self-harm planning things
these are the more severe forms of depression if you're having any of these sort of negative
thoughts any thoughts of self-harm any negative thought any plans anything like this please do
speak to a healthcare professional urgently like i said i'm gonna leave loads more information in the
description below as well for helpline numbers charity numbers emergency contact numbers so
if you do need that support it is out there for you so i think it's really useful for you to be
aware of this even if it's not for yourself if you're watching it for someone else if you're
noticing these changes in a friend and a family member you know what to do you know where to
to sign post them to for that help and support now moving on to physical signs of depression these
are usually not very obvious and sometimes they take a bit of time to develop as well
but it's good for you to be aware of these as well we're going to go through them so for example if
you have depression you may have a lack of energy this is quite common you might have a lack of
energy like a motivation to do things and this can be as a result of certain factors for example you
might not be sleeping well you might be waking up really early so you're not getting a good seven
to eight hours of sleep that will require good quality sleep to make you feel energized and woken
up and as a result of this depression it's causing you to feel tired all the time and on top of that
you might also start feeling a lot weaker than usual and you might start feeling aches and pains
in places that you never used to get now another thing as well to bear in mind is you might find
it difficult to go to the toilet as well because your eating habits have changed for example you
might be eating more or less as a result of this depression so let's take for example that you're
eating less and as a result you're gonna have less energy and as a result of the lack of sleep
as well you're gonna have even less energy and you might find it hard to have conversations with
people because you just don't have the energy to speak to bring up topics to bring up conversation
with people and as a result of this you end up isolating and not speaking to people and
not socializing to people so i'm just trying to to give you a little outlook of how it all links
together and for ladies who have periods sometimes a sign a physical sign from depression can be that
you start to miss your periods or they start to become a bit more irregular or lighter than usual
so i thought it was important to discuss these physical symptoms because letting them get worse
can sometimes be a sign that the depression is getting worse so it's really important if you're
having these sort of thoughts if you're having these kind of physical symptoms or if you know
someone is having these then speak to a health care professional get them to speak to an health
care professional it's really important this is looked at sooner rather than letting it get worse
and i know sometimes you might not be up for it all of us are like this sometimes you just
can't be bothered doing something but please don't leave it there's so many people that you
can speak to like i said i'm going to leave loads more details in the description below for various
different charities and emergency lines that you can just speak to you don't have to physically go
in sometimes you can just pick up the phone and speak to someone can make such a big difference
so the next thing i want to discuss are the triggers of depression if you have a family
history of depression you might be more likely to get depression another thing i wanted to discuss
as well is sometimes there's no obvious cause for depression it might just be your personality type
that makes you more vulnerable so don't think of triggers like that either like they're a cord i'm
just making you aware of these and sometimes depression can be caused by a stressful event
so for example losing a loved one or ending a relationship or living on your own and being
isolated and then becoming dependent on alcohol for example that's another trigger
and some people may have a long-term condition that they're struggling to cope with and it's
bringing their mood down it's lowering their mood and making them feel low and sometimes women have
depression after giving birth and this is known as postnatal depression so whatever you think
the cause might be for the depression i want you to know that you can make a recovery you can get
back to normal back to what you were before but you need to make sure that you're looking out
for these triggers you need to make sure you're looking out for the symptoms that we spoke about
and you need to make sure that you seek help you seek help from a medical professional your
healthcare professional is there to help you that's the most important thing that i'm going
to keep on saying in this video because i want you to keep thinking of that now the next thing
that i want to include in the symptoms of depression is social interactions because
sometimes when you have depression you might not feel like hanging out with friends or family or
even going to work or college sometimes you just don't want to do these activities and this might
be because you find people irritating or you just can't tolerate being around them and this results
in fewer activities and difficulties at home or at work with colleagues and people may start to
notice these changes in your behavior or if you know someone who you've noticed these changes
in their behavior speak to them talk to them ask them how they feel ask them what's going on lend
them an ear lend them a shoulder listen to them let them unleash on you and tell you what's going
on this can be really really helpful and this is because someone with depression will really
thrive on the knowledge that someone out there is wanting to listen to them listen to what's going
on with them and really take an interest that's why it's so important that you stay in touch with
you stay in touch with friends you communicate with people with violent phone or in person
just to help with this and just by letting them know that you're there for them just by sending
them a text or just ringing them out of blue can make such a big difference that's what friends
and family are there for and sometimes you might even be able to give them a nudge in the right
direction if you feel like they should be speaking to a healthcare professional they should be
getting more help now i haven't spoke about grief postnatal depression or bipolar disorder these are
different types of depression with different types of symptoms but if you do want a specific video
on these i'm more than happy to do them if you leave a comment below i'll get back to you and
i think the most important thing from this video is remember if you're having any of these sort of
symptoms that we've spoke about we've gone through them all one by one now you know about them
if you're having any of these sort of symptoms or having any doubts at all speak to your healthcare
professional that is the most important thing and like i've been saying throughout this video
that's all i want you to do i want you to remember these signs of symptoms and if
you're having any of them or any of these sort of thoughts or if you're noticing anything like this
speak to your healthcare professional that's what they're there for and they're there to help you
and i know at the start of the video i said the two-week guide if you're having the low mood for
two weeks or more and it's continuing but please remember this is a rough guide you can speak to
a healthcare professional sooner two weeks is just a rough guide so if you want to speak to
someone sooner by all means please do that and i'm going to leave loads more information like
i said at the start of the video and throughout the video in the description below to charities
to helpline numbers and some more resources that you might find helpful another important topic
i wanted to discuss with you as well is when you're speaking to your healthcare professional
be open and honest with them really tell them how you're feeling really tell them
what's triggering it what's making it worse tell them everything that's inside you just
open up to them and i know it's a lot easier said than done but this is generally the best way for
healthcare professionals for myself for example when i speak to a patient who's open to me and
is telling me everything i need to know it's a lot easier for me to give them the right help
that they need and similarly if you know someone and you've noticed that their mood has dropped
you've noticed these changes that's probably why you've come to watch this video to get more
information try your best to nudge them in the right direction to the healthcare professional and
sometimes they might not want to they might not believe what you're telling them so also another
good idea is if that isn't the case speak to the charities there's loads of charities which again
i've left information in the description below to them they give you some really good advice as well
so that's the end of this week's video i really hope that you found this information helpful
i've tried to make it as simple as possible so that you know about the signs you know about the
symptoms you know about the physical symptoms and what to do as i always say always remember that
you're awesome and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make
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