What Does Depression Feel Like? Signs & Tips 

We all feel sad and upset from time to time, but they’re temporary feelings and they go away with the passage of time. For other people, the persistent feelings of hopelessness, unhappiness, and emptiness become a part of their routine life. Today, we’ll discuss what depression feels like; its symptoms, and tips for friends and family.

If you have been experiencing the changing moods for the past few weeks and it is impacting your daily routine life and making it more difficult in a negative way. In such a case, you aren’t alone and you probably have depression.

Speaking of depression, it is a very common mental health condition in the USA. According to an estimate, approximately 17.3 million adults (above 18) in the USA experience at least one major depressive episode annually. Depression falls under the category of mood disorder and its symptoms vary from mild to severe on how you manage, think, and feel daily activities.

What Does Depression Feel Like? 

What does depression feel like? It’s the belief of many people that depression makes them weak and causes a lot of problems in their lives and makes them get help. They don’t realize the fact that some of its signs are more subtle and they indicate that something else is going on. However, some of the main examples of what does depression feel like are as follows;

Physically Painful

Physical pains can happen in depressive episodes. Usually, people with depression experience aches in their body like muscular pull and tension, headaches, and even nausea in some cases.

Impacting Sleep

Depression impacts your sleep and causes sleep issues like feeling tired waking up after having hours of sleep, waking up at night frequently, and having difficulty to fall into asleep, or staying asleep. It results in the form of lower energy and exhaustion. However, it stops you from getting out of the bed, brushing your teeth, or performing daily routine activities.

No Way Out

You don’t feel any hope and it makes you feel there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Resultantly, you would consider yourself worthless and a failure. It leads a person towards committing suicide in severe cases.

Challenging to Make Decision

It becomes difficult for a person to focus and concentrate their attention on one point. People with depressive episodes describe their feelings in a state of fog where they don’t see or think of things clearly in terms of what is happening around them.

No Pleasure/Joy in Life

People with depressive episodes lose interest in the pleasurable activities of life. The things they used to love don’t make them feel happy anymore, and they believe that they would remain sad and upset.

People with Depression 

The reason people ask the question “what does depression feel like?” is to make sure that their feelings and experiences aren’t alone. Other people experiencing this condition feel so baffled that they don’t know how to recognize their inner feelings about what they’re going through. However, some of the responses that you hear from people are as follows;

• Depression has made their lives shallow and haunts them every day
• It makes you have a fake smile when others are laughing, and you won’t disappear to avoid this condition
• Don’t feel like moving your body, brushing your hair or teeth
• Can’t take care of yourself or your children
• Feelings of failure to your family, friends, and as an individual person
• Loneliness feelings when you see others enjoying, laughing and having fun
• Worthless feelings even though receiving praise at the workplace
• Heavyweight on your chest that is bringing your down wherever you go

The non-clinical perspective of a person that has experienced depression and anxiety condition is as follows;

• Depression is like an old friend that doesn’t really connect, but you’re familiar with his ins and outs. The best strategy is to work with depression rather than avoiding it
• Suffocation of your emotions makes you feel like you’re breathing through a straw
• Don’t have clear thoughts

Common Signs 

Some of the main signs and symptoms of depression both mild and severe are as follows;

• Suicidal thoughts and attempts of committing suicide
• Withdrawing yourself from all types of social activities
• No self-care
• High digestive problems, headaches, pains, and aches
• Difficulty in decision making, remembering, and focusing
• Lower energy
• Changing appetite
• Sleeping issues
• Irritability
• Pessimism, worthlessness, and hopelessness
• Losing interest in the pleasurable activities
• Sadness and upset

Tips 

If your friend or acquaintance is going through depression, then you must be wondering how you should deal with this condition. The thing you should keep in mind is that you should be aware of the symptoms that would let you know that your friend is struggling and experiencing a depressive episode. If you see them struggling, then take care of them and ask them how you could help them out.

Conclusion: What Does Depression Feel Like? Signs & Tips 

After an in-depth study of what depression feels like; its symptoms, and tips; we have realized that depressive episodes could badly impact a person’s life. if you see anyone struggling with this condition, then you should get them the required help.