Merriam-Webster defines depression as the state of feeling sad, in low spirits, or melancholic.
The dictionary adds that depression is also a specific medical term for someone so affected by sadness, despair, and guilt that they struggle with concentration, suffer from disturbed sleep, slip into inactivity, become socially withdrawn, and may develop suicidal intentions.
How does the natural feeling of sometimes being down and depressed become a severe psychiatric disorder that threatens people’s lives?
At Keven Tagdiri, M.D. in Encinitas, California, we want to help patients identify depression and overcome it long before it reaches such a serious state.
People often don’t realize they have depression because the disease develops gradually, with no obvious signs. You know you have a cold because you sneeze, have a sore throat, and feel lousy, but early-stage depression causes no obvious physical symptoms.
So, how can you tell whether you or someone you love has a case of the blues or is developing depression? Here are our tips for telling the difference:
Everyone gets down now and then. You might feel low because you had a rough day at work, an argument with your partner, or a poor result on a test. You can feel deeply miserable when these events occur, but your mood should soon improve.
With depression, the low mood is consistent and rarely, if ever, improves.
Instead of overcoming issues, your mind dwells on them and can only see the downsides. For example, in the situations described above, someone with depression might feel tremendous guilt about letting down their partner, their work colleagues, or themselves.
Instead of seeing these situations as challenges to overcome, they view them as further proof that they’re undeserving, worthless, and even cursed.
If you feel blue, you might play music, read a book, or go out with friends to give yourself a boost. Within a few hours or days, the low mood disappears, restoring your emotional equilibrium.
When you have depression, nothing you do makes much difference to your mood. You might smile or play the part of someone enjoying themselves for a while, but underneath, the misery is unending.
Someone saying “pull yourself together” when you feel sorry for yourself isn’t a big deal. But saying that to someone with depression can make them feel even more useless and wretched.
It’s also futile — they can’t shift their mood by wishing it were so any more than they could fuse a broken bone that way.
People with depression often develop physical and cognitive issues as their condition worsens. These might include:
These symptoms are so vague they’re often overlooked or blamed on aging. However, regularly experiencing them signifies something is affecting your health and needs to be identified.
The time to seek medical help for depression is when you identify with any of the telltale signs outlined above, particularly when they last more than a couple of weeks. Book an appointment with us at Keven Tagdiri, M.D., so we can find out what’s going on.
We perform lab tests to see if there’s an underlying condition to blame, like a hormone imbalance caused by a thyroid disorder or menopause that requires specific treatment.
We can address any problems we find and provide effective treatment for your mental health disorders, typically by combining antidepressant medication and counseling.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that, on average, someone ends their life every 11 minutes in the United States — that’s nearly 50,000 deaths every year resulting from something that started with people feeling sad, in low spirits, or melancholic.
Identifying and treating depression early shortens recovery time and prevents the terrible experience of severe depression. If you suspect your low mood is more than just an attack of the blues, call our compassionate team at Keven Tagdiri, M.D. or book an appointment online.
