The small things you used to do to get a dopamine rush don’t hold the same appeal for you anymore or don’t seem to make you happy like they used too. For me it was simply starting my day off with a cup of hot tea and scrolling through postsecret on Sunday morning.
An excessive amount of sleep. You wake up. You slept for 9 hours. After a few moments of checking your phone, if you have the desire to even do so- you go back to sleep. You wake up again, a few hours later. No motivation to actually get up out of bed to start your day, so you fall back asleep. In your mind, that’s easier than making an effort. You wake up again, the whole day has passed, but that’s something you can accept, because who cares when you can fall back asleep yet again.
These were my weekends and days off from freelancing for most of my 20’s. For a while, work was the only thing that made me get up out of bed, because bills. Eventually drugs were introduced into my life- which led to a very volatile substance abuse issue ,and the come down made the entire cycle even worse. I craved sleep because I was so exhausted from doing drugs, which were the things that kept me up, until the come down. Slept to avoid life.
I’m against labeling a human being as being depressed.
I’m for acknowledging that a person might be depressed for a certain time period.
There’s a big difference between the two statements. Good nutrition, exercise, going outdoors, working, being productive, social interaction, learning to transcend tragedy, etc. is the answer for all people. If a person is perpetually depressed, they are probably missing some of those steps.
Depression and anxiety usually effect eachother in opposites. When you are depressed you typically arent anxious but when your anxious you aren’t depressed. I find myself overthinking, being suspicious and worrying about a week before my depression hits hard. But everyone is different. Common indicators are lack of joy in things, withdrawal and excessive sleep or fatigue despite not doing anything.
If you are going through it, you’ll be ok. Whatever it is will pass like the seasons. Please always seek therapy and go to the emergency room if you feel unsafe.
Tired, things are much harder to do if they aren’t the easiest dopamine hits. Doing anything actually productive get exponentially harder and the drive for any self care including hygiene is a battle.
i dont wanna think about my problems everytime so naging coping mechanism ko ang matulog para takasan ung realidad, pakiramdam ki pag tulog ako, hindi ko mararamdaman ung sakit
dumating sa point na bumibili ako ng over-the-counter sleeping pills, nakaka apat na pills ako sa isang araw kasi ayoko talaga gumising, masakit kasi talaga its that kind of problem na mahirap iwasan, ayoko gumising pero ayoko mamatay, im aware sa sideeffects na magiging makakalimutin ako but i dont care mas pabor pa saken un kasi makakalimutan ko lahat
tumigil lang ako nong may research na kami hehe nadistract ako ng takot na ‘hindi makatulong sa group’ kaya hindi na ako natutulog para maka ambag ahahahah but i realize na kahit madistract ako nakikita parin sa kwarto ko kung gaano na ako kamiserable, may molds na kisame ko, punong puno ng basura everywhere di mo na malaman kung ano ang gamit at ang basura
Most people don’t wake up and the day is already a bummer. That’s how I finally realized I was depressed. Every day just felt negative. I didn’t want to do it. But normal people wake up and the day starts new and fresh. I want to feel that again.
I was depressed since young age. I was being physically abused by teacher and I used to sleep a lot just to avoid the reality. even now I have tendencies of sleeping. that’s how I know I have depression.
Sleeping a lot and lack of self care.
I realised I was depressed when I woke up one day at 2pm, saw how messy and disorganised my room was and how my skin was practically cracking because I wasn’t lotioning it. People usually don’t realise that both the things are very early signs of depression, and it’s usually treated as simply being lazy.
Becoming obsessed with a tv series or movie series and feeling like the characters are close friends. But not a tv series that makes sense for you to be invested in. Something random. I w done it twice. I watched the 20th anniversary of Les Miserables on YouTube on repeat. I don’t know why. But it was really comforting. And I watched “Lost Girl” on repeat – a tv series about a succubus. I haven’t watched it since and completely forgot about it until it recently came up randomly.
I can’t do the things I like to do and just zone out on a screen in all of my spare time. I’m pretty big into crocheting, reading, and baking, but in my bad times, they just seem like too much. Seasonal depression + major body changes hit me pretty hard and I haven’t been able to enjoy my hobbies for months now
For clinical depression it is often sleep disturbance. Sometimes oversleeping but most often for most people it is insomnia. Waking up after a few hours and unable to fall back asleep. This can happen for a few weeks or a few months and is brutal.
“I’ll take a shower tomorrow, I’m just kinda tired today.” Repeat as many days as necessary until you realize how much of a disgusting monster you’ve become which makes you even more depressed until you’re so repulsed by yourself you can barely even stand the thought of getting naked and standing under the shower head. But then you push through and get in the shower and you realize this is actually the good place and you never want to get out.
And then the hot water runs out and you are reminded just how shit life really is and how even the good place disappoints you.
Withdrawal from people and places and wanting to completely isolate myself.
I ended up at my local walk in clinic this morning to sort out some antidepressants because I’ve let it go too far without asking for help, now I feel completely broken 😔
How inconsistent my emotions were. I would go from being wired and energized to tired and lethargic less than 5 minutes later. I would be absolutely ravenous and incapable of feeling full, and then I wouldn’t want to eat anything. I would be completely robotic to overly emotional at the flip of a switch
I stop singing. When I’m good I sing along to the radio, the TV, the songs in my head etc. When things take a turn I just stop. You can tell when I’m coming back up because I start singing again.
Loss of interest in your favorite things. Loss of concentration and struggling at simple things like hygiene. Crazy mood swings. Biggest one: you just don’t give a fuck about anything
Failure to task-activate. I have sort of a checklist of activities I do to pick myself up when I’m spacing out. When I catch myself doing something like doomscrolling for hours, I offer items from the list to see if I can shift into a more intentional behavior. Usually if I can start those easy creative activities (journaling, reading, going for a walk) then I can segue into other productive habits (“when I’m done drawing, time to wash dishes”). I never force it but I offer things until something clicks. Usually this works great!
If I keep offering my checklist items and my internal response is just “nah” to everything, repeatedly, for several days (longer than PMS), that’s my blaring red “am I depressed?” siren. If the answer is “oh shit yea guess I’m pretty depressed” then I sort of reverse tactics. I become less lenient about must-do chores (forcing myself to shower, clean up the trash around my bedroom, pick up laundry) and gentler about everything else. It’s better for me to sort out exactly what is causing the depressed feeling when I’m in a clean space and taking care of myself. Frankly, most of the time, naming the depression and making that behavioral shift is enough to turn things around.
Managing my mental health as an ADHD/ASD person is so much easier if I just think of it as one big flow chart, lol.
Constant exhaustion, even when sleeping way more than normal.
Eating habits all over the place. For me, it swung between barely eating for days to bingeing until my sides hurt.
Indulging in extreme bouts of escapism. Again for me, whether it was obsessively writing, excessive sleeping, binge reading maybe books, zoning out with video games or TV shows the entire day, or endlessly scrolling social media. People talk about losing interest in hobbies with depression, but sometimes, it can actually be the opposite.
Currently battling mixed anxiety-depressive disorder. Signs and symptoms can vary a lot, for me it was:
Not feeling like doing anything other than what I was obligated to do. At my worst, even what I was obligated to do, like work, became too much. I flaked on all social events, would start feeling like shit minutes before going somewhere, look for reasons not to go out, even spending time with my partner became a chore. That’s the depression part, and then anxiety would also get involved and I’d feel like shit for disappointing people and watching my lige pass me by.
Being incapable to concentrate on tasks, like at all.
Looking for constant escapes, whether real or digital. I’d leave all the time to go on random trips to flee my depressive and anxious thoughts, even if I couldn’t afford it. Digital-wise, I’d play video games while watching Youtube/Netflix to drown out the anxious/depressive thoughts everyday for countless hours. Only time I’d feel alive is when I’d spend a few days in a new city walking 20+ km a day.
Constant cynicism and negativity. It felt like everything would go wrong all the time, like everything was against me, that the world was shit, everybody was shit.
Fatigue, both mental and physical. I didn’t have sleep issues in the most direct sense, but I’d go to sleep stressed and anxious, and would experience restless sleep more often than not.
Constant irritability. Everything annoyed me, I lacked patience for the most trivial things, I’d get angry for no reason. It made my relationship a mess.
My self-esteem was shot. I felt dumb, not valued, questioned everything I did. This led me to make more mistakes at work, and it kind of “realized” something that wasn’t real at first. My work environment did not help, but my disorder was the biggest cause.
There’s a bunch of other stuff, and it’s still a huge work in progress, but I got help two months ago and the process has been super beneficial since.
Not eating enough for sure. I always find it leads to drinking too much as well but since I’ve gotten older I don’t go down that rabbit hole as much as I did when I was in my twenties
House starts to get dirty, I will start to notice that I don’t feel motivated to take showers or brush my teeth, I will start to want to just go lay in my bed anytime I don’t absolutely have to be doing something else, etc. I also will just slowly start to notice the apathy creeping in.
Loss of interest in things and activities we once enjoyed, and just a general displeasure, not being able to feel happy and feeling tired and melancholic always, sometimes repetitive thoughts, guilt etc.
the very first thing is propably that I dont care about my goals. I usually make an effort to write yearly goals for myself and get into the feel of how it would be if I achiebed them. This year I had another episode right around that time (january) so I StILL havent written anything down. I am not an ambitious person, it’s just something that tells me I am healthily engaing in my life.
Turning into a zombie just sitting there not moving. This one is weird but I swear I’m heavier I can’t hold my head or arms up I even walk slower cause my feet are so heavy
Wanting to quit activities that you love and never feeling the drive to go back. I was a competitive dancer and rode horses my whole life and just stopped all of it after depression started taking over. everyone was super surprised when I said i was quitting. I love both of those things very much and still talk about them all the time till it hurts. I felt like they gave me so much purpose and giving them up just broke a lot of things inside me. but nothing can make me go back no matter how badly I want to.
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Not enjoying things you used to and becoming more withdrawn from friends & family. They can sneak up on you.
Sleeping too much and always feeling tired
Never ever feeling rested or hungry
The small things you used to do to get a dopamine rush don’t hold the same appeal for you anymore or don’t seem to make you happy like they used too. For me it was simply starting my day off with a cup of hot tea and scrolling through postsecret on Sunday morning.
you can’t be bothered cooking
An excessive amount of sleep. You wake up. You slept for 9 hours. After a few moments of checking your phone, if you have the desire to even do so- you go back to sleep. You wake up again, a few hours later. No motivation to actually get up out of bed to start your day, so you fall back asleep. In your mind, that’s easier than making an effort. You wake up again, the whole day has passed, but that’s something you can accept, because who cares when you can fall back asleep yet again.
These were my weekends and days off from freelancing for most of my 20’s. For a while, work was the only thing that made me get up out of bed, because bills. Eventually drugs were introduced into my life- which led to a very volatile substance abuse issue ,and the come down made the entire cycle even worse. I craved sleep because I was so exhausted from doing drugs, which were the things that kept me up, until the come down. Slept to avoid life.
I’m against labeling a human being as being depressed.
I’m for acknowledging that a person might be depressed for a certain time period.
There’s a big difference between the two statements. Good nutrition, exercise, going outdoors, working, being productive, social interaction, learning to transcend tragedy, etc. is the answer for all people. If a person is perpetually depressed, they are probably missing some of those steps.
Over eating
Unable to enjoy things, become withdrawn, can’t eat, and too much sleep. I don’t want to care about hygiene anymore
as soon as i start listening to sad music
Always being tired despite getting sleep. Not caring about anything you know you need to get done.
I cannot concentrate on playing the video games
Stop caring about things you cared about before
Stop caring about brushing teeth and showering regularly
Depression and anxiety usually effect eachother in opposites. When you are depressed you typically arent anxious but when your anxious you aren’t depressed. I find myself overthinking, being suspicious and worrying about a week before my depression hits hard. But everyone is different. Common indicators are lack of joy in things, withdrawal and excessive sleep or fatigue despite not doing anything.
If you are going through it, you’ll be ok. Whatever it is will pass like the seasons. Please always seek therapy and go to the emergency room if you feel unsafe.
Owning everything like everything is your fault and not accepting people are agents of free will
Messy room, sleeping too much, neglecting hygiene, agoraphobia, always feeling tired, hopelessness.
Poor hygiene
lack of personal hygiene
You sleep more than usual , as a depressed person myself I can assure you feeling more and more tired is a sign of depression
You feel sad.
Declining all social invitations
Libido and erection changes.
Tired, things are much harder to do if they aren’t the easiest dopamine hits. Doing anything actually productive get exponentially harder and the drive for any self care including hygiene is a battle.
Living space getting messy. Can’t be bothered to tidy
Not wanting to get out of bed. Not wanting to talk. And dreaming of witnessing murder for some odd reason.
i dont wanna think about my problems everytime so naging coping mechanism ko ang matulog para takasan ung realidad, pakiramdam ki pag tulog ako, hindi ko mararamdaman ung sakit
dumating sa point na bumibili ako ng over-the-counter sleeping pills, nakaka apat na pills ako sa isang araw kasi ayoko talaga gumising, masakit kasi talaga its that kind of problem na mahirap iwasan, ayoko gumising pero ayoko mamatay, im aware sa sideeffects na magiging makakalimutin ako but i dont care mas pabor pa saken un kasi makakalimutan ko lahat
tumigil lang ako nong may research na kami hehe nadistract ako ng takot na ‘hindi makatulong sa group’ kaya hindi na ako natutulog para maka ambag ahahahah but i realize na kahit madistract ako nakikita parin sa kwarto ko kung gaano na ako kamiserable, may molds na kisame ko, punong puno ng basura everywhere di mo na malaman kung ano ang gamit at ang basura
Putting on weight, or losing it without trying. Sleeping a lot more, lethargy. And sore feet.
Feeling sleepy all day
Feeling sleepy all day
Being sleepy all the time, mentally exhausted, regardless what you do and want to be alone
Most people don’t wake up and the day is already a bummer. That’s how I finally realized I was depressed. Every day just felt negative. I didn’t want to do it. But normal people wake up and the day starts new and fresh. I want to feel that again.
When I was sad, I understood the lyrics of the song When I was depressed, I understood the meaning behind the song
For me personally it’s when I stop singing to myself.
I am constantly singing some made up song about whatever I’m doing, sung to the tune of whatever “real” song is stuck in my head.
When I stop doing that I know my brain is done.
fatigue, apathy
Extremely pissed and anything else just sets me off
I stop cleaning. I also cancel plans and I take a while to message people back.
Staring at all unable to do anything else
I was depressed since young age. I was being physically abused by teacher and I used to sleep a lot just to avoid the reality. even now I have tendencies of sleeping. that’s how I know I have depression.
Sleeping a lot and lack of self care.
I realised I was depressed when I woke up one day at 2pm, saw how messy and disorganised my room was and how my skin was practically cracking because I wasn’t lotioning it. People usually don’t realise that both the things are very early signs of depression, and it’s usually treated as simply being lazy.
For males: Anger issues
You stopped doing little things that keep your place yourself clean
Hunger even after eating
Everything is boring and nothing is cool
You don’t seem to care much about things
Pessimism and the good ole “it is what it is”
Becoming obsessed with a tv series or movie series and feeling like the characters are close friends. But not a tv series that makes sense for you to be invested in. Something random. I w done it twice. I watched the 20th anniversary of Les Miserables on YouTube on repeat. I don’t know why. But it was really comforting. And I watched “Lost Girl” on repeat – a tv series about a succubus. I haven’t watched it since and completely forgot about it until it recently came up randomly.
constipation, I don’t know why just what happens to me personally
When I badly need to isolate to the point of ghosting the world.
When you regularly feel drained for little to no reason.
Sad thoughts
When I’m depressed I will wear the same clothes everyday , I do launder them though… 😂
Anger and irritability
Motion sickness
I can’t do the things I like to do and just zone out on a screen in all of my spare time. I’m pretty big into crocheting, reading, and baking, but in my bad times, they just seem like too much. Seasonal depression + major body changes hit me pretty hard and I haven’t been able to enjoy my hobbies for months now
Zoning out
Laughing at good jokes less than usual.
For clinical depression it is often sleep disturbance. Sometimes oversleeping but most often for most people it is insomnia. Waking up after a few hours and unable to fall back asleep. This can happen for a few weeks or a few months and is brutal.
“I’ll take a shower tomorrow, I’m just kinda tired today.” Repeat as many days as necessary until you realize how much of a disgusting monster you’ve become which makes you even more depressed until you’re so repulsed by yourself you can barely even stand the thought of getting naked and standing under the shower head. But then you push through and get in the shower and you realize this is actually the good place and you never want to get out.
And then the hot water runs out and you are reminded just how shit life really is and how even the good place disappoints you.
Withdrawal from people and places and wanting to completely isolate myself.
I ended up at my local walk in clinic this morning to sort out some antidepressants because I’ve let it go too far without asking for help, now I feel completely broken 😔
I start making jokes about killing myself….that’s the indicator.
Skipping wash day for my hair is a telltale sign
Feeling withdrawn from activities you usually enjoy, not really caring about attending events,
Not being sure what you’re even feeling
How inconsistent my emotions were. I would go from being wired and energized to tired and lethargic less than 5 minutes later. I would be absolutely ravenous and incapable of feeling full, and then I wouldn’t want to eat anything. I would be completely robotic to overly emotional at the flip of a switch
Stay in bed don’t go outside, eat too much , having suicidal thoughts, I’m still depressed
Not eating. Losing interest in things you usually enjoy
Going outside in 10 degree weather and not feeling cold
The house isn’t as clean as it usually is.
Apathy. Not caring about anything, including yourself.
Lack of libido
Not looking after your personal hygiene.
If I’m depressed I don’t know it….being sad, tired and annoyed is how I feel all the time
Not having a routine
I stop singing. When I’m good I sing along to the radio, the TV, the songs in my head etc. When things take a turn I just stop. You can tell when I’m coming back up because I start singing again.
I don’t realize it, but my voice changes, according to my loved ones. It becomes low, monotonous.
When I stop listening to music in the mornings.
No interest in eating
You start saying “fuck it” to things that you know could be bad for you.
-Ordering take out 3rd night in a row
-ordering that 4th drink at a work happy hour
-staying up way past your bedtime binging TV/video games
‘Laziness’, except it’s not being lazy. It’s just losing motivation to do anything; even your favourite hobbies
Insisting that you’re not depressed because real depressed people try to kill themselves or self-harm.
Depression can take many forms.
Loss of interest in your favorite things. Loss of concentration and struggling at simple things like hygiene. Crazy mood swings. Biggest one: you just don’t give a fuck about anything
When the littlest things start to get under my skin
For me the big one is when I stop working out.
Bed rotting especially if the room is dark.
Not feeling like doing ANYTHING. Not even stuff you like to do or that normally makes you at least content
Feeling more irritable and more intrusive thoughts than normal.
Failure to task-activate. I have sort of a checklist of activities I do to pick myself up when I’m spacing out. When I catch myself doing something like doomscrolling for hours, I offer items from the list to see if I can shift into a more intentional behavior. Usually if I can start those easy creative activities (journaling, reading, going for a walk) then I can segue into other productive habits (“when I’m done drawing, time to wash dishes”). I never force it but I offer things until something clicks. Usually this works great!
If I keep offering my checklist items and my internal response is just “nah” to everything, repeatedly, for several days (longer than PMS), that’s my blaring red “am I depressed?” siren. If the answer is “oh shit yea guess I’m pretty depressed” then I sort of reverse tactics. I become less lenient about must-do chores (forcing myself to shower, clean up the trash around my bedroom, pick up laundry) and gentler about everything else. It’s better for me to sort out exactly what is causing the depressed feeling when I’m in a clean space and taking care of myself. Frankly, most of the time, naming the depression and making that behavioral shift is enough to turn things around.
Managing my mental health as an ADHD/ASD person is so much easier if I just think of it as one big flow chart, lol.
Cancelling my paid for therapy, stretching classes, drinking more…
People I loved told me I looked like I was going through a lot.
Being tired all the time regardless of how much sleep I get
Constant exhaustion, even when sleeping way more than normal.
Eating habits all over the place. For me, it swung between barely eating for days to bingeing until my sides hurt.
Indulging in extreme bouts of escapism. Again for me, whether it was obsessively writing, excessive sleeping, binge reading maybe books, zoning out with video games or TV shows the entire day, or endlessly scrolling social media. People talk about losing interest in hobbies with depression, but sometimes, it can actually be the opposite.
Not eating.
feeling fine one moment and immediately feeling sad out of nowhere
Currently battling mixed anxiety-depressive disorder. Signs and symptoms can vary a lot, for me it was:
There’s a bunch of other stuff, and it’s still a huge work in progress, but I got help two months ago and the process has been super beneficial since.
I noticed it was serious and on going when I began losing interest in things that used to make me so happy.
GI issues and headaches
Not eating enough for sure. I always find it leads to drinking too much as well but since I’ve gotten older I don’t go down that rabbit hole as much as I did when I was in my twenties
It starts with angry lashing out. Then sudden decline into black Hell.
House starts to get dirty, I will start to notice that I don’t feel motivated to take showers or brush my teeth, I will start to want to just go lay in my bed anytime I don’t absolutely have to be doing something else, etc. I also will just slowly start to notice the apathy creeping in.
Loss of interest in things and activities we once enjoyed, and just a general displeasure, not being able to feel happy and feeling tired and melancholic always, sometimes repetitive thoughts, guilt etc.
For me personally, a fatigue that won’t go away and my immune system goes to shit and I get sick easier
When the music I usually love is grinding my ears and I have to drive in silence.
Being on Reddit
Sleeping too much
Feeling tired everyday
Everything isn’t funny anymore
the very first thing is propably that I dont care about my goals. I usually make an effort to write yearly goals for myself and get into the feel of how it would be if I achiebed them. This year I had another episode right around that time (january) so I StILL havent written anything down. I am not an ambitious person, it’s just something that tells me I am healthily engaing in my life.
My room starts to get messy or I do excessive cleaning
-Retail therapy
Searching the internet for answers to questions like this one. I hope you’re okay op.
Turning into a zombie just sitting there not moving. This one is weird but I swear I’m heavier I can’t hold my head or arms up I even walk slower cause my feet are so heavy
Sleeping too much, loss of appetite, feeling sad 🙁 hope you’re ok?☺️
Apathy. No desire to do the things you enjoy. Forcing yourself to eat. Caffeine doing nothing for your energy expect making it harder to sleep.
The sleepies and the crankies sneak up on me every time lol
Exhaustion and doom scrolling.
Wanting to quit activities that you love and never feeling the drive to go back. I was a competitive dancer and rode horses my whole life and just stopped all of it after depression started taking over. everyone was super surprised when I said i was quitting. I love both of those things very much and still talk about them all the time till it hurts. I felt like they gave me so much purpose and giving them up just broke a lot of things inside me. but nothing can make me go back no matter how badly I want to.