Can you tell when a person is depressed? Many times when a person is truly depressed it can be hard to tell if you aren’t around them often. People often show their emotions differently when in public then when at home especially in their work environment. It can be easily mistaken when someone smiles that nothing is wrong or when someone gets angry they must be a miserable jerk. Not to say that can’t be the case, but how people act around you isn’t always how they feel inside. Much of the reason is because society expects us to act a certain way when we take part in it. In school we are told from a young age to be happy and put on that smile. At work we usually must act happy even when were not and most people I know are not very happy at work or in their lives. So this tells me that most people act happy when they’re not. These reasons make it hard see the signs and symptoms of depression at first, but if you know how to detect depression it is easy to see the signs even when a person is acting happy.

If a person is showing physical symptoms of depression they might be sleeping excessively or not near enough. A person sleeping more that 10-12 hours a day is a good sign of sadness or avoidance. Sleeping long hours is an easy way not to deal with life. Loss of interest like sexual pleasure and hobbies are other physical signs of depression. When a person is depressed it makes them hard to be around anybody especially if the people that you around is in demand of trying to figure out why you are down.  This includes sex partners as well. Major depression tends to lower you libido and cause tension which makes it harder to enjoy sexual pleasure. When you’re depressed usually most things seem very uninteresting especially if they require an extensive amount of effort.

The symptoms of depression can come in many other forms than just physical though. Feeling sad and hopelessness or overly pessimistic is usually reasons of anger and failure. We all get angry from time to time and often fail here and there, but when these things happen too often we start feeling loss of self worth and may start to feel loss of hope which shows in our attitude even when we try hiding it. Nobody wants failure and to be unsuccessful in achievements they’ve worked so hard for. If this happens depression is likely to follow. Failure can hurt especially when it means that money is involved, this can make people bitter and to act pessimistic over any successes they see around them.

There are many forms of depression that people inherit depending on their situation at hand; a common disorder that causes people to have severe ups and downs is usually symptoms of bipolar depression or manic depression. It causes extreme shifts in ones behavior for very little specific reason. Understanding polarities and feeling angry one moment then angry the next isn’t actually the bipolar disorder, but when this happens often and for no specific reason then having bipolar disorder might want to be looked into if it is continuously. Some of the symptoms of manic depression are excessively high or overly good mood especially if that person follows with a deep depressed dark mood. When a person feels the need to pick fights all the time then make up shortly after it could be signs of manic depression. These people will fairly ever blame themselves for the incident and usually feel well justified for their actions though they may undeniably carry guilt around with them. The understanding with manic depression is that we are all going to have ups and downs about life and issues, being able to see this and let it empower you instead of distract you is what keeps us from being a manic depressant.

There are countless types of issues that may make you depressed and this is only normal. It is likely that you will feel depressed many times in your life for many reasons, but if you or your loved ones are showing more than just signs of mild depression then it is important to get counseling or some form of help. Many doctors will be quick to put you on a medication for you illness, but I recommend avoiding this if possible. Most depression can be eased if you find the right people to talk to about your grief. I am not saying it will be a cure all, because like many other illnesses there is no definitive cure. You must face that you will be depressed every now and then and learn to live with it; it is human nature to feel this way occasionally. In severe cases medication may help mask you depression, but this comes with a price financially and physically. Many antidepressants cause just as many health concerns or more than the depression itself. Some include suicidal thoughts, weight gain, and loss of libido, anxiety, gastrointestinal disturbance and sleep disruption. This is only to name some and on top of that the depression usually never goes away. Most people I know that are on antidepressants are still depressed often.

Some of my recommendations for dealing with depression are, finding a counselor that isn’t tied in with pharmaceutical companies. This may be hard for you if you look for conventional treatment, because many counselors are there to meet the needs of the pharmaceutical industries and rarely help anyone come out of depression. Look for activities that relate to reuniting you with yourself. This may seem strange, because we are so pushed away from the self in society. I’m not saying never talk or hang around other people and believing this notion will completely miss the point. In fact you can participate in group activities which help to focus on the self like yoga and meditation. Meditation works to tone the nervous system which will help to keep you calm; also it reunites you with the self. Looking into changing your diet may help increase moods too. The typical western diet will depress anybody if eaten for long enough. Ideally it is up too you to decide to live happy and no person or drug are going to make that happen. It may mask the problem, but eventually it will come back if you aren’t aware of self.