Depression: Sign, Symptoms and Treatment Options

by BetterLYF Wellness Online Counselling Psychologist

Depression is a serious mental illness that is often neglected by the person experiencing it, and also by the person’s close family and friends. It is mostly due to the frequent changes in behaviour as most of the days, you feel worthless, hopeless and sad, but some days you get the strength to smile and get out of bed spontaneously. But a person with severe depression almost every day avoids everybody and everything and find it difficult to handle daily tasks with motivation.

That feeling of sadness affects your every thought and every decision and it won’t go away until it makes you feel like it’s taken over your life. Cancelling plans, distancing yourself from your close ones, having suicidal thoughts to put an end to it all are signs and symptoms of severe depression that needs to be treated with medication or therapy.

Signs and symptoms of depression:

If you are regularly experiencing any below-mentioned signs and symptoms most of the days or nearly every day, for more than two weeks, maybe an indication of depression:

Signs:

Fatigue or lack of energy
Problem with concentration, memory loss, or confusion in decision-making
Constantly feelings sad, anxious, or the feeling empty.
Feelings of worthlessness, guilt, helplessness or hopelessness.
Feeling restless or having trouble sitting still
Feeling irritated or angry all the time.

Symptoms:

Trouble sleeping, oversleeping or early-morning awakening.
Increase or decrease in appetite and/or remarkable weight change.
Unknown body aches, pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems.

Depression Treatment Options:

To start the right type of treatment, you need to first consult with a therapist or psychologist, who further may suggest you see a clinical psychologist if you need any medication. Usually mild to moderate depression can be treated with therapy and counselling without the need for medication, but medication is required to treat severe depression so that brain chemicals can be managed.

Depression counselling along with medication helps to prevent the depression symptoms from returning by identifying harmful and unhealthy patterns of thinking and behaviour and replacing them with more accurate thoughts and functional behaviours.