Signs of depression in a woman. Test

Sadness and slight sadness - this is not a reason to seek help from a specialist. Negative emotions are periodically experienced by all people. But, if depression for a long time interferes with normal living, working, and enjoying simple things, then the real disease can be the cause. In this article, you will learn how to independently identify depression. Also on this page you will find a useful test that will help to make a preliminary diagnosis.

Attention! To accurately identify the ailment, independent testing is not enough. Be sure to contact a professional psychologist.

Women are more emotional and prone to sudden mood swings, so you should not immediately take any weekly blues for a mental disorder. When apathy and a feeling of sadness are pronounced, without leaving you for more than two weeks, this may already be a sign of depression.

The main symptoms are:

Depressed mood, longing.
Feeling of despair, loss of taste and meaning of life.
Significant aggravation of fears, feelings of shame.
Anxiety, bad forebodings, tension.
Irritability, abrupt change of emotions, for example, from despondency to aggression.
Self-flagellation, continuous guilt.
Uncertainty, low self-esteem, dissatisfaction with oneself. Constant search for deficiencies in yourself. Fear of making mistakes.
Hobbies, favorite food, TV shows or music - everything that previously brought pleasure ceases to please.
Dull feelings, periodic apathy.

Physiological manifestations

An important sign of depression is the following health problems:

Sleep disturbance. Excessive drowsiness or insomnia.
Digestive system malfunction. Most often these are constipation.
Excessively increased appetite or its complete absence.
Problems with libido: a complete lack of interest in sex.
Fatigue. Habitual loads cause impotence.
There are discomfort or even pain in the muscles of the skeleton, stomach, heart.

Behavioral symptoms

Usually a woman tries to eliminate physical discomfort, but the disease continues to develop. Even if physiological symptoms disappear, depression can be identified by the following behaviors:

Apathy, lack of initiative, unwillingness to set goals and actively achieve them.
A woman loses interest in communicating with friends, prefers solitude, avoids contact with society.
Conscious refusal of entertainment.
Propensity to use stupefying substances: alcohol, drugs, various stimulants.
Sloppy appears, a woman ceases to strive to look attractive, even neglects compliance with general hygiene rules.

Several symptoms relate to thinking patterns. The following cognitive signs indicate that the patient is suffering from depression:

suicidal thoughts often arise;
awareness of their own uselessness, nullity, powerlessness;
thinking slows down, attention deficit occurs;
negative perception of oneself and others prevails.

Types of Depression

If you are interested in what forms this disease can occur, check out this table:

Type of	Features	Treatment
Light form	Symptoms are dim and rarely occur. May be chronic. If a woman suffers from the disease for several years, then this may serve as the basis for the diagnosis of "dysthymia"	Therapeutic and preventative measures are desirable. Medications are generally not used.
Moderate depression	Low productivity, many actions performed automatically. The woman seems to be half asleep, deeply immersed in her bleak thoughts	Regular psychotherapy sessions are indicated. It is necessary to take a course of taking antidepressants. Gradually, the use of medicines is replaced by enrichment of the diet with foods that stimulate the production of serotonin
Heavy form	Typical symptoms of depression are extremely pronounced. Possible suicide attempts, delusions, hallucinations	It is necessary to undergo a long course of treatment in a hospital

The main causes of depression in women

The development of the disease is usually preceded by tragic events. This may be the death of loved ones or problems in his personal life, followed by a whole complex of unsuccessfully developing circumstances.

Attention! There are people whose personality has already developed with a predisposition to depression due to psychological trauma received in childhood. In such individuals, one slight stress can trigger the mechanism of the disease.

Most often, the appearance of depression in a woman is caused by the presence of one of the following factors:

Do not forget about old age: in old women have to endure the deaths of close friends, acquaintances, often husbands. Following loneliness, a feeling of helplessness, uselessness, abandonment.

Video - What is depression and how does it manifest

Female Depression Test

Try a questionnaire created by renowned American psychotherapist Aaron Beck. The test consists of 21 points, below them are several statements. You must choose one statement for each item that you agree with.

For each selected first statement you get 0 points. The second - 1 point, the third and fourth - 2 and 3 points, respectively.

Attention! Test results should not be interpreted as an axiom. They can only serve as a hint in deciding whether to visit a specialist.

№	Answer number 1	Answer number 2	Answer number 3	Answer No. 4
Question 1. How do you feel	I feel myself good	I'm disappointed	I constantly feel sad, I can not calm down	I'm unbearably miserable
Question 2. What do you think about the future	In the future everything will be alright	The future makes you think	I have no future, everything will be the same	My fate is hopeless, it can only get worse
Question 3. Do you feel like a failure	I don't feel like a failure	I've always been less fortunate than others	I had a lot of failures	I'm a complete loser
Question 4. Your attitude to life	Life is as good as before	Pleasure in life is less	I feel dissatisfaction	I'm not happy with anything
Question 5. Do you often get annoyed	Now I'm not more annoyed than before	I have become more annoying lately	I constantly feel annoyed	I don’t care now
Question 6. Your attitude to other people	I'm interested in other people	People used to be more interesting to me.	Everyone is almost indifferent to me	Completely not interested in others
Question 7. How do you make decisions	Sometimes I don't make decisions right away	I used to make decisions faster	It has become harder for me to decide on something	I can't decide anymore
Question 8. How do you feel about your appearance	I look normal, as always	It bothers me that I am older and not so attractive anymore	I know for sure that it has become uglier	I look really terrible
Question 9. The level of your performance	I work as productively as always	To do something, I need to force myself	It's hard for me to push myself to work	I can’t do anything
Question 10. How do you sleep	I have a normal sleep	I used to sleep better	I sleep less, and it has become more difficult to fall asleep	I wake up much earlier than usual, and then - insomnia. Or, on the contrary, I sleep 15 hours a day or more
Question 11. How quickly do you get tired	Tired of no more than usual	I'm getting tired faster now	Everything I do really bothers me	I can’t do anything because I constantly feel tired
Question 12. Has your appetite changed	My appetite has not changed	Eat worse than before	You have to make an effort to eat something.	I can not force myself to eat
Question 13. Do you often feel guilty	I haven’t felt guilty for a long time	Often I feel guilty	Remorse makes me uncomfortable	Guilt never leaves me
Question 14. Do you feel punished	They can't punish me	Someone can give me what they deserve	Soon they will definitely punish me	I'm already punished
Question 15. Are you satisfied with yourself	I'm happy with myself	I feel disappointed	Disgusted with myself	I hate and despise myself
Question 16. Do you feel worse than others	I'm definitely not worse than everyone	I am more often mistaken and show weakness	I'm doing everything wrong	I am to blame for all the negative
Question 17. Would you like to commit suicide?	It never occurred to you to commit suicide	Sometimes I think about suicide, but I won’t harm myself	I would like to lose my life	Destroy myself when the opportunity presents itself.
Question 18. Do you often cry	I'm no more tearful than always	I became tearier	Totally stuck, crying every day	I can't even make myself cry to feel better
Question 19. Do you lose weight	I haven’t lost weight recently	Lost 2 kg	Dropped 5 kg	I began to weigh 7 kg less
Question 20. Do you have any health problems	I have no more health problems than always	I am concerned about pain, diarrhea, constipation	I am very worried about my health and it’s difficult for me to switch my thoughts to something else	I can’t think of anything other than my physical condition
Question 21. Your attitude to sex	I don't feel that I'm less interested in sex than before	I used to be more interested in intimacy.	Now, sex interests me a little	I absolutely don't feel the need for intimacy

To stop confusing a bad mood with depression is quite difficult, but doable. It is enough to look at yourself from the side to understand how quickly you get tired, how often you get irritated, eat too much or too little. Challenger will now tell you about all symptoms of depression in more detail.

The word “depression” so often refers to a bad mood that it becomes difficult to separate these two states. In fact, a bad mood is a natural reaction to unsatisfactory circumstances, and depression is a disease that develops for a number of interrelated reasons and can only begin with a bad mood.

Depression can often be one of the syndromes of more serious disorders in the central nervous system. Elderly people who suffer from high blood pressure for a long time, sooner or later face depressive phenomena. But they are only part of the manifestations associated with general disorders of the central nervous system.

kelseyincorporated.com

Depression is a whole “family” of disorders. One type of depression manifests itself in a dreary mood, depression, vivid guilt (melancholy), the other is full of anxiety, the inevitable expectation of impending troubles (anxious depression), the third is an apathetic type, characterized by a loss of emotional resonance to both good events and bad ones. Typologies and classifications of depression are many. As well as signs that it is time to think about her symptoms.

1. A constant feeling of fatigue

This is one of the most common symptoms of depression. Often people with diagnosed depression are afraid to admit that they are close to their illness and blame themselves for weakness and laziness, so they cannot completely relax. Even with the right regimen of the day, it may seem to them that fatigue has not disappeared - depression is debilitating for the whole organism.

Kirill Koshkin

psychiatrist, psychotherapist

Outside help should be sought when the quality of a person’s life and social and psychological adaptation decrease, performance deteriorates, interpersonal relationships are broken, and the sphere of interests and entertainment is waning. Unfortunately, the number of requests in recent years has grown.

In 1996, WHO published a report: the prognosis was that by 2020, depressive disorder will occupy second place among all causes of disability - after coronary heart disease. Three full years remain, but it is now clear that the forecast was visionary. At the moment, the economic burden of depression is, without exaggeration, the heaviest. In Russia, the largest number of requests is recorded in large cities, where social ties are not so strong.

Turning to a psi specialist is stigmatizing. Compare: if you call a person schizophrenic - this is an insult, but if hypertensive? Or a peptic ulcer? The difference is obvious. According to statistics, only 2% of people who can be helped resort to the help of specialists. 30% admit that the appeal is possible, but do not know who to turn to and what consequences await them. The remaining 68% do not allow independent access to specialists dealing with psychological problems.

2. Irritability

Depression cannot be seen or measured, so fighting it, especially alone, can be an almost impossible mission. If you try to hide the disease, the forces of patience and understanding rarely remain, so people suffering from depression can constantly lose their temper. Can you flare up over trifles and even this annoys you? Well, you probably have more than just a busy schedule.

3. Coldness in response to love and care

Depression may not allow you to experience any emotions, and manifestations of love often become completely inaccessible. Any gestures of caring and encouraging words seem to the depressed person to be complex and burdensome, and therefore cause irritation.

4. Refusal of a favorite thing

Lack of interest in once beloved activities can also be a sign of latent depression. As with any other illness, it is almost impossible to live a full life, so even the most relaxed hobby can seem like a burden and another difficulty.

Kirill Koshkin

psychiatrist, psychotherapist

One of the earliest and surest signs of a depressed state is anhedonia (persistent decline or loss of ability to have fun). We are talking about the duration of these manifestations in a few weeks. If this is noticed, the most correct is to contact a specialist for real diagnostics. If we talk about how to notice the depressive state of a loved one, then usually this is a mixed attitude to what happens to a person. On the one hand - sympathy, on the other - irritation and anger.

5. Eating Disorder

Starvation or overeating is a common symptom of depression, which may be an attempt to fight the disease or a sign of self-indifference. Limiting oneself in food to many depressed people seems like a way to control at least some side of their life, when control over their own condition becomes impossible.

6. Need for help

A person suffering from depression, especially hiding it, cannot mentally correspond to a healthy person and cope with all everyday tasks. However, in most cases, one of the friends and colleagues can not even guess about the illness, while every day and every action hurts them.

Depression can be short-lived, it can last a couple of weeks, and it can drag on and on for years. It is quite normal sometimes to feel sadness, loneliness or hopelessness, especially if you have experienced a loss, as well as during the period of time when you understand yourself. The problem occurs if these sensations do not go away, if physical symptoms begin to manifest, if it begins to interfere with your usual life. If you think you are depressed, it is important to see a doctor as soon as possible. Without treatment, depression can last for months and years, it can poison your whole life.

Steps

Part 1

Analyze your thoughts and feelings

Pay attention to your emotions and mood. Depression is a disease that causes our brain to stop controlling emotions. Each of us feels depressed from time to time, but people suffering from depression experience such emotions (or a combination of them) much more often. If you experience the same emotions, if they prevent you from living the usual life, it is important to seek help. The following are some emotions that may appear in a state of depression:

Observe the desire to isolate yourself from family and friends. People with depression often stop spending time with friends, they lose interest in things that usually give them pleasure. This is because they feel an unbearable desire to distance themselves from their ordinary lives. Therefore, it is worth paying attention if you have such a desire, and also think about how your life and your daily affairs have changed in the last few months or in the last year.

Make a list of classes that you used to do (before you started to feel worse), think about how often you took part in various events. Over the next weeks, make a note in the diary each time you do these things. Evaluate if you are less likely to engage in them.

Pay attention to various suicidal thoughts in time. If you constantly have thoughts on how to hurt yourself or even kill yourself, you should immediately contact a specialist. Get help as soon as possible (dial 112). There are other indicators of suicidal tendencies. These include:
- fantasies about self-harm and suicide;
- the desire to give their things and / or put all their affairs in order;
- farewell to people;
- feeling as if you are at an impasse and there is no hope;
- phrases such as: “It would be better if I died” or “Without me people would be better”;
- a very quick change of mood from hopelessness and depression to a feeling of happiness and tranquility.
Take into account any risky behavior. Risky behavior can also be seen as a symptom. This is especially true for men with depression. If you become addicted to drugs or alcohol, unprotected sex, inadequate driving, dangerous sports - this may be a sign of depression.

Think about how often you have cried lately, how easy it is to bring you to tears. Frequent tears can be associated with other symptoms and indicate depression, especially if you don’t even understand why you are crying. Think about how often you cry, which brings you to tears.

Think about any strange pain you have experienced. If you have frequent unexplained headaches or other pains, this is a good reason to see a doctor. These pains can be either a symptom of a disease or a consequence of depression.

Part 3

Find the cause of depression

Think about whether you may have postpartum depression. If you have recently given birth to a baby, think about when your alleged depression started. After the birth of a child, mothers often experience strong and sharp mood swings, irritability and other symptoms (from minor to really serious). If you notice signs of depression immediately after birth or within the next few months, it may be postpartum depression.

Most mothers after the birth of a child experience symptoms of postpartum depression for several days, and then recover on their own. Most likely, this is due to hormonal changes in your body and stress after giving birth.
If you have suicidal thoughts, if depression makes it difficult for you to take care of your baby, and if symptoms continue for more than a week or two, consult a doctor immediately.
Postpartum psychosis is a rare disease that can begin within two weeks after birth. If the symptoms of depression are severe and are accompanied by sudden mood swings, if you are visited by thoughts about causing harm to the child, if you have hallucinations, consult a doctor immediately.

Think about whether your depression may be related to the onset of autumn or winter. If symptoms begin to appear when the days are getting shorter and it gets dark outside, you can assume that your depression is a seasonal affective disorder caused by a lack of sunlight.
- Not every temporary depression is a seasonal affective disorder. Many people experience depressive episodes that recur every few weeks, months, or years.
- If you behave especially manic and energetic when you do not notice symptoms of depression, you should also talk to your doctor about it, because it can be bipolar disorder.
Even if none of the above reasons suits you, you still cannot exclude the possibility of depression. Many episodes of depression primarily have a hormonal cause (or a cause that is difficult to detect). But she does not make this condition less serious or less worthy of attention. Depression is a real illness, but it’s not something to be ashamed of, even if you think that you have no reason to be sad.

Part 4

Depression Treatment

Ask for help. Seeking help is the first step to treatment. Feeling helpless is part of depression, not a normal feeling; your loneliness nourishes this feeling. Friends and family can help you, they will listen to your problems, help in solving them and will support you in difficult moments.

If you have problems with physical activity and don’t want to leave home, tell your loved ones about your depression, invite them to visit and do something together that brings you both pleasure, even if you usually don’t.

Find out your diagnosis. It is very important to see a doctor if you suspect yourself of depression. This is due to the fact that there are other diseases that mimic depression, so the doctor needs to figure this out. Keep in mind that it’s quite normal to express your opinion twice or even thrice, especially if it seems to you that the doctor is not listening to you or concentrating on what you think is most important.
- Your doctor may refer you to a psychotherapist or psychiatrist.
- Your doctor may not prescribe medication. Depending on the cause, which the doctor suspects has caused depression, he may recommend certain changes in your lifestyle.
- If you notice that depression lasts only a few weeks, and then gives way to periods of "frantic" energy, ask your doctor if this could be bipolar disorder before taking the medicine.
Visit a therapist. Now there are many psychotherapists and psychologists who can help you recover. You might think of group therapy or a support group. Ask your doctor for a referral.
- For example, you can find a support group for people with depression, or you can find a group like Alcoholics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous - this is very useful if you are addicted to alcohol or drugs to deal with depression.
Take antidepressants. After making sure of your diagnosis and taking measures to combat depression, ask your doctor if you should take medication. Your doctor may prescribe antidepressants if you think that the main problem is anxiety disorder, because in this case, antidepressants will be effective.
Identify the reason. Eliminating the root cause of depression is a very effective treatment. But this is best done under the supervision of a psychotherapist.
- If you grieve, tell your friends, family, or spiritual mentor about your grief. Find a psychologist to help you figure it out. You can buy literature that addresses the feeling of grief and ways to deal with it.
- If a major change has happened in your life recently, try to find out what exactly in these changes made you so unhappy. If you moved to a city where you don’t know anyone, go outside and get to know your area, find interesting places, join an interest club, find a new hobby that you can share with others. You might think of volunteering, because helping other people helps us to feel better about ourselves. If you think you want to change something, but don’t know what exactly caused the depression, talk to a psychologist.
- If you suspect that depression may be related to the menstrual cycle or menopause, consult a female health professional (gynecologist).
- Consult a doctor or psychologist, join a support group if you have a chronic illness or you are abusing alcohol or drugs.
Try to maintain good friendships. Remember your friends and try to communicate with them regularly. It is especially important to contact your friends and family when you need to talk with someone. A simple heart-to-heart talk about boiling will help you feel better.
- If you want to make new friends, try joining an interest club (or start doing something new that you didn’t even think about before). Regular meetings in such communities (for example, weekly dances or a book club) will help develop the habit of participating in social life.
- If you are too shy to talk with strangers at such events, smile and look a person in the eye - this may be enough to start a conversation. Find a small group or people with whom you will be more comfortable if you are very worried about this.
Make changes to your lifestyle. Good sleep, regular exercise and a healthy diet are all vital to reducing stress and a healthy emotional state. Think about meditation, massage and other relaxation methods.
- Take advantage of the support of others. Ask for professional sports advice, drop by the gym and discuss relaxation techniques (including meditation) there. You can search for information on this topic on the Internet or ask a friend or neighbor to help you set up a schedule and stick to it.
- Exercise is especially beneficial because it is thanks to them that the body produces endorphins that raise our spirits.

Be prepared for the fact that improvements will not come immediately. Do not expect that you will feel much better immediately after you understand the cause of depression. But be sure to notice even small victories on the path to recovery.
Depression is not such a simple thing. This is a real disease that needs to be cured. Despite the fact that depression does not affect the physical health of a person so much, it cannot be overcome only by willpower. Be sure to seek medical help and treatment.
If you need help, talk with someone you can trust. They will help you, because sometimes even a simple conversation with a person you trust helps to feel better.

How to distinguish depression from a temporary breakdown and stress? Often the symptoms may be similar.

Symptoms of Stress and Depression

The main difference is that apathy does not go away with a decrease in stress levels. In this case, it is most likely depression, and not the usual temporary breakdown. Every day the condition is getting worse, there is no desire to get up in the morning, ordinary activities drive into melancholy.

During depression, you may be overwhelmed by panic attacks, a constant feeling of anxiety.
It becomes difficult to concentrate on tasks. Working projects become a burden, there is no desire to develop and change something.
Insomnia appears. Or vice versa - a constant desire to sleep comes.
There is a decrease in appetite, weight changes (both in the direction of losing weight, and gaining - whoever has it).
Depression is often accompanied by other unpleasant sensations: pain in the stomach, indigestion, increased migraines, and changes in blood pressure.
More and more nightmares.
Sex drive is reduced.

How to recognize depression in a woman

Very often this disease is hidden. Neither the patient himself nor his relatives can recognize the symptoms and do not understand what the problem is and where the taste for life disappeared.

Why do women experience symptoms of depression? Often this is caused by some specific event that completely changed the usual way of life. This may be a loss of work, a difficult separation, the birth of a child. In this case, salvation will come along with solving the problem: find a new job, meet love, hire a nanny, for example.

But not so simple. In some cases, it is almost impossible to recognize a depressive trigger. This is where the very hidden depression arises, the symptoms of which are not so obvious. It can be confused with other problems, including chronic fatigue or weakness due to anemia. The psychotherapist will help to deal with the problem. It is very important to contact him on time, as deep depression can be accompanied by hallucinations, loss of connection with reality. This disease can even lead to suicide and other destructive consequences for the individual. The treatment of depression should be taken seriously - simple walks in the fresh air and a change of partner do not always help. This condition is addictive, and the longer you endure, the more difficult it is to get out of it without loss.

If you manage to recognize depression in time, you can start to deal with the problem yourself. Firstly, you need to review your diet, make it easier, eliminate alcohol, sweets and junk food. In no case do you need to sharply give up sugar, this will certainly not add an optimistic mood and vigor. But it’s worth a bit to adjust the diet. Secondly, it is important to leave your home more often: to walk, visit exhibitions and concerts, play sports in the fresh air. Light jogging and cycling will help return to an active life. Thirdly, it is worth working with your own self-esteem: more often praise yourself for even the smallest successes, take care of yourself and allow yourself as many pleasant things as possible.

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neurologist, top blogger Learn

Our psyche has a certain limit of resistance to life's adversities. Someone sleeps like a baby every night, and during the day he is awake, cheerful and ready for new achievements despite the fact that he lost his entire family in the attack. It is enough for someone to see the corpse of a frozen titmouse for a psychological trauma to happen. Depression occurs when the brain bastions fell in front of life's adversities and a neurotransmitter exchange turned into a pumpkin. The brain ceases to provide a sufficient level of energy and good mood, and a person can no longer live every day with positive feelings.

Of course, we all experience sadness, anxiety, disappointment, anger and other emotions every day with a minus sign, but normally this does not last too long. The nervous system is not sharpened for long work in "emergency mode". Chronic stress increases the level of cortisol (stress hormone) in the blood, and as a result, pressure rises, interruptions in the work of the heart and other unpleasant things that risk turning into a stroke or heart attack begin. Therefore, negativity is normally replaced by calm, relaxation, or just thoughts about something pleasant.

Adversity is not the only reason depression can occur. Sometimes this misfortune arises in completely healthy-looking people who live in complete prosperity, were born with a golden spoon in their mouths, surrounded by loving relatives and friends, have a reliable partner, and in general, the whole world seems to be at their feet. Such depression is called endogenous.

The problem with depression is that it does not have obvious symptoms to the average person, like a cold or radiculitis. Depression is a lady who has thousands of masks, and she uses them with incredible ingenuity. And sometimes she doesn’t hide at all, revealing a person’s true face, then he still won’t recognize her, because he has long been used to living a life without colors and does not suspect that he can live better.

Millions of people wake up before the alarm clock, around 4-5 in the morning, stare at the ceiling, shrinking from the inevitability of an approaching bleak day, get up, make the first cup of coffee and go to work. After work, they look at their family in bewilderment, experiencing a mixture of bewilderment and disgust. There is no strength for anything, the sofa beckons with its soft surface, the TV screen flickering invitingly. They are rapidly plunging into a half-nap under a bad series, each time wondering that it seems like nothing happened in a day, and there are no strength at all and again did not have time. And when do other people manage to read books, cook gourmet food, go to visit and receive a second education?

And most importantly, why go to the doctor? “Doctor, I’m a loser, I don’t like my wife and I have terribly boring children. There is no such profession in the world that would interest me. I would like to lie under a palm tree and do nothing, but, alas, I am not the heir to a billionaire. Maybe you can give me some pills for this terrible reality? ”That's what a person with depression thinks. He does not think that the problem is in him. He is sure that the misfortune is in the surrounding reality, and alas, it cannot be changed (although some quickly realize that you can grab an alternative reality with unicorns and a rainbow for a short while in other ways like alcohol).

Very few patients with depression go to the doctor - they don’t even suspect that they have a medical problem. Their confidence is actively supported by loved ones, using optimistic encouragement: the universal “Get ready, rag!” Practical “Well, drink vitamins”, insightful “It's all because women don't give you!” And categorical “Just stop whining”

Psychiatrists often see patients with depression after attempting suicide when hospitalization is already compulsory. Relatives sometimes bring the unfortunate, because it’s scary to watch a healthy-looking person lie quietly for the second week, looking at the ceiling. In general, psychiatrists have seen the most vivid and dramatic scenes with depression in the title role.

Neurologists get less tragic, but much more complicated stories. Depressed patients come to these doctors from general practitioners, cardiologists, endocrinologists and gastroenterologists who shrug their hands, ask for a “psychosomatics”, and resolve themselves because the tests are perfect, the patient was treated this way and that, and it wasn’t easier.

Sometimes patients carefully glance at the doctor’s appointment themselves, timidly ask them to prescribe “sedative herbs, or something nerves to hell.” When you start talking to them, an abyss of melancholy opens very quickly, seasoned with a fair amount of anxiety, spiced up with panic attacks and decorated with months of insomnia.

Depression is hardly a problem of our time. The faces of this disease are perfectly described by the classics. Sometimes she hides behind a facade of sparkling humor and inimitable irony, like that of the writer Taffy, who created hilarious stories, and outside her image, in ordinary life, she suffered from unbearable melancholy and could not go out, because she had to count the windows in each the house. Sometimes depression, like the Black Man of Yesenin, comes at night and disturbs sleep with disturbing thoughts, and it is impossible to stop this gloomy round dance. Sometimes she turns a blossoming woman with irrepressible energy into a gloomy recluse who drowns longing for strong alcohol, like Scarlett in the famous novel by Margaret Mitchell.

However, if you have depression, you are unlikely to recognize yourself in one of the masterpieces of world literature. Because you most likely do not read books - there is not enough strength for this. As with everything else, except for the necessary minimum, which allows you not to be homeless and unemployed.

And then another part of patients with depression is at the doctor’s office. They come with complaints of "chronic fatigue." Such patients are sure that their ailment in the form of a breakdown should be treated with vitamins and immunomodulators, so the doctor’s opinion on the treatment is not particularly interesting to them. They have already begun to take ascorbic acid on their own and appear in the office not for consultation. They need sick leave because they don’t have the strength to go to work. Even after a comprehensive examination, which shows the absolute norm, it is difficult for such patients to be convinced that their fatigue is of a very definite nature and that it must be treated with antidepressants. However, if the doctor succeeds in this number, after three weeks an amazing contrast occurs, approximately as in the cartoon about the sailor Papaya, who tasted magic spinach.

Symptoms of Depression

A manifestation of apathy may be a lack of desire to take care of yourself. This symptom is especially pronounced in women: they stop using cosmetics, begin to wear clothes on the principle that the first thing fell on me from the closet.

It is possible to make a mistake with male compatriots: it often turns out that a mentally and physically healthy male of a Russian person simply does not consider it necessary to take a shower more than once a week and iron clothes. Therefore, if a man is suddenly unshaven and unhappy, this is not a reason to drag him to the doctor

Anxiety is a common companion of depression. It can manifest itself as background anxiety, which intensifies in the morning or at night, or in the form of panic attacks, when the anxiety is very strong, but occurs in the form of attacks and is accompanied by a lack of air, sweating, palpitations, nausea.

A striking symptom of depression is the loss of simple and familiar life joys. The food seems to lose taste (however, if you load a lot of sweets into yourself, for a while there is a feeling of pleasant dullness, reduction of anxiety and melancholy, which patients usually use as legal and affordable spiritual anesthesia, and therefore quickly gain weight). The world around us seems gray, as if it has lost its color. Favorite activities lose their meaning, because they cease to be pleasant ... And now the once beloved cross-stitch seems like a pointless poke of a needle into a shed rag, the creation of desserts turns into an unjustified complication of life (who needs it when you can eat nutella with a spoon right from the can?) , and reading books is seen as the most boring occupation in the world. Doctors call all of the above anhedonia - a loss of the ability to enjoy life.

Since many in our country are still convinced that life should not be for joy, but in the name of fulfilling a duty - whether maternal, filial, conjugal, military or civil, anhedonia is also rarely perceived by the patient and his environment as an alarming bell.

Other manifestations of depression are decreased attention span and the inability to do one thing for a long time. A person feels as if he has become dull, although he seems to be at the peak of his intellectual form. He finds with some surprise that collecting a bunch of thoughts is becoming increasingly difficult, and in order to formulate sentences of three or more words, one has to make titanic efforts. Nootropic drugs, coffee, sweets, energy are used, but there is no effect.

Longing is an important, but not defining symptom in depression. At first, sadness, regret, sad thoughts may arise. This whole melancholy company is spinning in the head non-stop, and there is no end to it. Patients say that they have “tears close”: it becomes difficult to even look at the calendar with cute puppies, because there is an irresistible desire to burst into tears.

Sometimes the case ends with emotional anesthesia: the ability to feel suddenly disappears, there is a solid dull nothing in the place of sadness, disappointment, resentment. Along with this, “connection” difficulties often arise with one’s own body: it feels like someone else’s, and a person feels like a captive imprisoned in a useless cell of naughty muscles and ugly bones.

And if all these symptoms can be interpreted differently, depending on the situation and context, then thoughts of suicide certainly indicate serious problems and require immediate consultation of a psychiatrist. Depressive thoughts of suicide are devoid of emotional tension - they, like waves, roll and recede, promising deliverance from a dull existence. Death in the minds of a person suffering from depression is not a way for someone to prove something or achieve universal justice, but just the simplest way to turn off a gloomy reality forever.

Depression can be cured. And this means that you can turn fifty shades of gray of November into a pleasant landscape, fill a boring and meaningless life with interesting things, free up a psychic resource that was spent on endless experiences of anxiety, and direct it to something more creative and useful.

Depression cannot always be recognized unless you are a specialist. Take a short HADS test - this is a hospital scale for anxiety and depression, a screening that will help you detect the problem. And if you are in doubt whether you have depression or not, this is the situation when it is better to consult a psychiatrist or a neurologist, especially if you feel that you are not living as full and bright as you would like.