More than being sad: what does depression actually look like?
Despite being one of the most common mental health diagnoses, depression is often misrepresented. This leads to misunderstandings and more stigma. Have you ever heard someone say “that made me so depressed” or “I’m so depressed right now” when they were talking about experiencing a moment of sadness? Although sadness is part of depression, there is much more to it. We’re going to break it down, so you can understand how clinical depression actually shows up in people’s lives.
What is clinical depression?
Clinical depression is a set of symptoms that an individual experiences for a certain amount of time. There are different depression diagnoses, with the most common being Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). In MDD, you experience depressive episodes, which are periods of time in which the depressive symptoms are present. After it ends, you return to your baseline and may not experience any symptoms at this point. Sometimes people experience a regular pattern of their depressive episodes and sometimes people may go long periods of time between them.
Another type of depression is called dysthymia. This is where symptoms are persistent for a much longer period of time. You don’t have those periods of time where you are back to your baseline, like we see in MDD.
What do the symptoms actually look like?
Feeling sad is normal, especially in response to something hard. Sometimes we automatically assume experiencing a difficult emotion means there is something wrong with us and this isn’t in the case. The sadness people tend to experience with depression lasts the majority of the day for days on end. In therapy, we often call this “low mood” and you generally feel sad, empty, and low.
Beyond feeling low and sad, depression can significantly affect your energy levels, sleep, and eating patterns. In a depressive episode, it is common to feel tired no matter how much sleep you get. You may be sleeping more or less than usual and eating more or less than usual. You may even notice that your brain isn’t working like you’re used to, with difficulty concentrating or thinking about things how you usually would.
One symptom that we commonly see that is almost never talked about is called “anhedonia”. This is when you don’t get the same amount of pleasure from things you typically enjoy. It might feel like you are going through the motions when doing something that is usually fun for you.
These symptoms can come together to make your day to day life look and feel very different; it might be difficult to keep the routine you are used to or to keep up with everyday life. Some people find it leads to difficulty taking care of themselves and their basic needs. There may also be thoughts of worthlessness and suicide, which can really impact how you view yourself.
What can you do?
Dealing with depression is hard. One of the most important steps is getting the support you need. Having trusted support systems can help in so many ways, both emotionally and practically. Sometimes that looks like having someone to talk to, but it may also look like asking for help with day to day tasks.
Being compassionate to yourself is also a crucial part of getting through a depressive episode. Think of it like your gas tank is smaller – you wouldn’t expect a car to run after it’s out of gas, so it’s okay to readjust your expectations of yourself.
Professional help is often a key part of working through depression, so you can learn tools both to get through the episode itself and work on things that may be contributing to them happening in the first place. Our team of psychotherapists are trained in evidenced-based approaches shown to help treat depression.
We can talk more about coping with depression and depressive episodes in a future article.
Drop a comment if there’s something you want to see in that blog!
