Depression: How to Recognize It From Feelings

Depression carries with a stigma which society has not been able to get rid off despite numerous advances in discovering the underlying causes and effective treatments. So many patients who are depressed will not talk about their depression with friends or relatives. We as a society need to be able to put out our helping hands to the afflicted. We can only do this if we can identify depression. The following feelings are often displayed by depressed individuals.

Human beings are unique creatures because they have a conscience and feelings. Feelings are defined as, “an affective sate of consciousness, such as that resulting from emotions, sentiments and desires”. Since humans are complex creatures depression can affect the persons feelings. Individuals who are more sensitive are often in tune with their feelings. Professional Nurses and Doctors are trained to pick up the patient’s feeling and react accordingly.

Patients who are depressed are often overwhelmed by simple tasks. A person who is usually well organised may become disorganised even when the workload has not increased significantly.

Picture: Feeling overwhelmed by simple everyday tasks

1. As a “rule of thumb” most depressed people feel unhappy most of the time. Ordinary things which bring pleasure to most of us like going out with friends have no meaning for them. Jokes and comedies do not incite laughter in them.
2. The depressed person feels depressed. The depression is usually endemic. Most often there is no outside cause of the depression. Sometimes there is but it is usually out of proportion to the loss that may have happened.

Picture: Over the counter medications are used and abused to help control depression. Effects are usually limited. Photograph by Sarjeet S. Gill.

1. Irritability is a common symptom seen in depressed people. Sometimes they will recognise that they are irritable but at other times it will take a professional to identify the depression and this symptom.
2. Depressed people usually get angry quickly. This manifests itself in the form of frustrations at the failure to perform minor tasks which they are generally performed without any difficulty. An example of this type of frustration would be when a patient gets frustrated at not being able to process a simple calculation which he did with ease most of the time.
3. Depression manifests itself in many different ways. Many of the ways have been discussed here however this list of behaviours is not intended to be all inclusive. An article like this cannot be all inclusive because the nature of mankind is complex and no two individual behave similarly even when the stimulus is of the same strength and of the same duration. Lack of confidence is another sign that the patient is depressed. Many of us display lack of confidence when doing a new task or one we are not familiar with. In this context the lack of confidence is associated with tasks the person does routinely for example a teacher who is depressed may not feel ready to teach – lack the confidence of facing a class.
4. Depressed persons often feel guilty even when they have done nothing wrong. They blame themselves for things which I and you would not blame ourselves for. For example a depressed mother may blame herself for her child’s poor performance in class tests. Healthy individuals will quite comfortably state that the poor performance is related to the child’s lack of effort.
5. Depression may manifest itself in the form of indecisive behaviours. The indecisive behaviours are related to lack of confidence, reduced sleep and other factors but can often be detected by a professional.
6. Depressed people often feel negative and become disappointed over small and insignificant events e.g. when trips and falls while walking. Most of take an incident like this in a stride. After falling we get up. Then we look around to see if anyone saw us fall. Then we wipe our clothes and continue walking as if nothing has happened.
7. Feeling miserable is the hallmark of depressed patients. Even things are looking good for the rest of the world depressed people will continue to see the negative side of things. They will never see a cup as half full. They will always see it as half empty.

Picture: Depression and feeling miserable can affect all age groups

1. Last but not least depressed people always feel sad. Attempts to cheer them up often fail because our energies are limited. The sadness is intrinsic in nature and depressed persons should be encouraged to seek professional help to alleviate the sadness once and for all.

Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. It should not be used for diagnostic purposes. Only qualified practitioners are authorised and treat depression.