Symptoms of Depression

Depression invades your life, making you feel sad most of the time and without any motivation or pleasure in the things you do. The symptoms of depression are hard to recognize at first, because they appear gradually and are very subtle, when you feel sad frequently it is good to take a look inside of you and see if you have any of the symptoms related to this illness.

The main symptoms of depression are the feelings of sadness and hopelessness and the mentioned lack of interest in usual activities, but there are other like:

• Sudden and unexplainable weight changes.

• Trouble with sleep. People who have depression either can't sleep or sleep too much.

• Lack of energy. You may find that just moving takes too much effort.

• Feeling tired.

• Feeling worthless.

• Arising thoughts of death, suicide.

• Trouble focusing on something in particular, or making choices.

Although most people have its ups and downs in life. People with major depression have these symptoms for a long period of time (at least 2 weeks). If this is your case, you need treatment. When the situation is worse and you have these symptoms for years, you have dysthymic disorder.

If you have these symptoms and you've just given birth, you are suffering from postpartum depression, a common type of depression that have the same symptoms but a different origin. It is important to know that postpartum depression can evolve into postpartum psychosis where your have thoughts of injuring yourself or your baby, and must immediately treated.

Depression is a serious illness and like any other illness it must be treated by a proper doctor. It affects people of all ages and older adults have more risks when depression is present, that's why important to know about these symptoms and recognize them as soon as possible.