Sunday 9 December 2012

Symptoms of depression.


Core (key) symptoms:

  • Persistent sadness or low mood. This may be with or without weepiness.
  • Marked loss of interest or pleasure in activities, even for activities that you normally enjoy.

Other common symptoms:

  • Disturbed sleep compared with your usual pattern. This may be difficulty in getting off to sleep, or waking early and being unable to get back to sleep. Sometimes it is sleeping too much.
  • Change in appetite. This is often a poor appetite and weight loss. Sometimes the reverse happens with comfort eating and weight gain.
  • Fatigue (tiredness) or loss of energy.
  • Agitation or slowing of movements.
  • Poor concentration or indecisiveness. For example, you may find it difficult to read, work, etc. Even simple tasks can seem difficult.
  • Feelings of worthlessness, or excessive or inappropriate guilt.
  • Recurrent thoughts of death. This is not usually a fear of death, more a preoccupation with death and dying. For some people despairing thoughts such as "life's not worth living" or "I don't care if I don't wake up" are common.
  • Sometimes these thoughts progress into thoughts and even plans for suicide.

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