Depression and Mood Disorders

We all have times when we feel down. It’s normal to feel sad when a relationship ends, a good friend moves away or someone we care about dies. The stress of a heavy work load, financial difficulties or unemployment also affects our mood. However, the gloomy feelings usually pass and we still experience happy times with friends or family. Sometimes the sad feelings don’t go away - we stop enjoying things that used to be fun. We might have difficulty keeping up with work, or find it hard to even get out of bed in the morning. This could mean we have become depressed.

How will I know if I’m depressed?

If you’ve been feeling miserable more often than not over the past two weeks or more, and you’ve stopped enjoying things that used to be fun, you might be depressed. Check the symptoms below - if you can relate to three or more it is likely you are experiencing a bout of depression.

• Finding it hard to get motivated and feel interested in things
• Wanting to avoid friends and everyday activities
• Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
• Losing interest in eating, or overeating
• Losing weight, without dieting, or gaining weight
• Finding it difficult to get to sleep, waking during the night, or waking too early and not being able to get back to sleep. Alternatively, wanting to sleep all the time.
• Thinking about, or planning suicide
• Having unpleasant, negative thoughts (like feeling guilty or that you are a bad or unworthy person)
• Getting pains in your body or headaches that don’t seem to have any physical cause