How do you know if you are depressed?

cottonhead

Yes it normal for some people to feel like this for no apparent reason. Depression can hit anyone at any time. Dont feel guilty as you clearly wouldnt be choosing to feel down and you do realise that your life is good compared to others so you are not greedy or ungrateful. Somerimes its an imbalance of the chemicals you need to feel 'normal' and your GP can help by giving you some medicine for a while. Walking in the sunshine can really help ( yeah if we ever get any sunshine ! ) because it increases the levels of seretonin. As does excercise. Go to your GP there is nothing to be worried about and the sooner you catch it the easier it is to treat.

krlyr

Are the ready meals a new-ish thing, have they coincided with these feelings? Diet can play a huge part on our health, mental health included. If you're eating lots of ready meals and not much fruit and veg, a vitamin deficiency could be the culprit. Pop over to the Old Style section and learn some batch cooking recipes or good food 'bases' that you can cook to sort out the dilemma of cooking for one (e.g. cook a kilo of mince or quorn into a bolognese and you can have it with pasta or spaghetti for one meal, layer it between lasagne sheets and white sauce for another meal, add kidney beans and chilli powder/flakes for another meal, etc)
Many health conditions can cause 'mental sideeffects', e.g. anaemia, vitamin B deficiency, thyroid problems, etc. so there could be a medical reason, if you feel there's no emotional cause.
Personally, I would start a food journal and try to eat healthy. If you go to the doctors and say you're eating ready meals all the time, they'll probably tell you to try to eat healthier, so beat them to it by eating better and recording it so you can skip a step in the diagnosis if you don't improve. Try to find some exercise in - if you can get outside for 10 minutes, try that too, as we need time out in direct daylight to synthesise vitamin D (that's why the lack of daylight in winter can cause SAD)
You need to look after your body if you want to be in optimum health, and you may notice a huge difference.
Living in a messy house can have an effect too, before we moved, our old house was getting messier and messier, and needing more and more DIY done to it, but there was no point when we were about to leave. We didn't realise how much it had got to us until we were in our new house and had a sink that didn't leak, a kitchen side that wasn't warped and damp from the leak, windows that didn't let a small gale in, etc. Our current house needs the very basics of DIY so what we did was get one room done to a fairly decent standard - done on the cheap, nothing mega expensive, but clean walls, new flooring (even if it's just cheap laminate) and new blinds, it changed the feel so much and because it's the room we spend the most time in, we reap the benefits of it more than a snazzy bathroom or a freshly decorated bedroom.

ellay864

OP I really sympathise with you. I had similar symptoms and a friend suggested it could be anaemia or thyroid problems. I went to my GP who ran blood tests, all of which showed no problems. He then gently steered the conversation round to how I felt and I twigged he was suggesting I was suffering from depression. But stupidly I took that as a really bad thing, protested that I was fine and almost ran out of his room - the thought of being labelled depressive was a big stigma for me. I did start to realise that maybe I was but just couldnt face going back and being put on anti depressants, but I self medicated with St John's Wort.
Not long after that my husband left me and our kids for another woman and obviously that left me in a bad way but I had to put so much energy into my kids it actually helped. I started doing more exercise, got back into healthy eating as I'd been off my food so much when he left that my weight plummeted really badly. The maint hing for me was recognising that it was depression, and had been before, and accepting it was OK. I never did go on anti-depressants and tbh just facing up the reality helped me.
You're allowed to have off days, you don't have to feel great all the time. But it does sound like you could use someone to talk to. I found out an acquaintance of mine was a counsellor and so I used her; if i hadn't I may well have sought more professional help

mrs_angry

depression can appear just because you have been being strong for too long, i know because this is what happened to me, deaths, debts, work and problems all happened and i dealt with them, but eventually there was a straw and it broke the camels back!

result was i fell apart in a very quick time, but the good thing was i went to the dr because i had realised something was wrong, i went on antidepressants for 6 months and then everything was fine and i was back to my old self.

too many people think that if they admit to depression or take tablets they are admitting a weakness, that couldnt be futher from the truth, the weakness is knowing something is wrong and not doing something about it! hugs to you hope you got it sorted.x

Racheldevon

Lots of good advice above, just wanted to pick up on the work aspect as a manager too, some of your comments resonate with me. I'm not sure what sector you work within? I'm wondering how effect you find supervision (if you receive it), whether or not it's provided by a line manager who has a dual supervisory role, or whether you're able to access independent clinical supervision? To some extent the relevance of this will depend on the sector you work within, but certainly if you're within any of the helping professions, I would strongly recommend investing in an external supervisor - I personally find it hugely beneficial, and I feel the effects if I don't access it. Vicarious trauma/secondary traumatic stress can create some symptoms you list, as a direct impact of working within those fields, and the literature and research highlights how important supervision is (that's independent of any line management role)