How to Tell If Someone You Love Is Suffering from Depression

One of the tragedies of suffering from depression is just how quiet it can be. People can suffer from the condition for years without anyone around them realizing it. You may even have had a couple of depressive episodes yourself, and not realized it because you didn’t know what the signs were.

No simple web guide will make you able to properly identify and diagnose every single case of depression out there. This is a complicated condition, with many associated factors, and you should leave the diagnosis to the professionals. However, keeping an eye on the symptoms listed here will help you identify when it may be time to seek professional attention, be it for you, or for someone you love.

Watch the sleep patterns

How do you sleep at night? People follow different sleep habits; they manifest different patterns. Some people sleep more, others sleep less; some have always dealt with insomnia, others never experienced it. It’s important to understand that there are different versions of “normal” when it comes to sleep; depression often affects the sleep pattern of those afflicted.

For example, is insomnia a symptom of depression? Well, it can be. It depends on whether that person has always had trouble sleeping, or if the troubles have started suddenly, maybe following a major life event. In the second case, it’s more likely to be a symptom. Especially if the insomnia sticks around for two weeks or more.

Depression may also cause oversleeping, where the affected person starts sleeping for ten, twelve, or even sixteen hours at a time, and then they wake up still feeling tired.

Sudden appetite change

Depression may change the appetite of the afflicted person, leading to loss of appetite, or an increase in stress eating comfort foods. In the latter, the affected person likely won’t feel hungry, but they’ll still snack on anything they can get their hands on — it’s more of a compulsion.

The duration of the symptoms is an important diagnostic criteria for depression. It’s perfectly normal to be sad for a few days after attending a funeral. But being taken by a sense of overbearing sadness and dread that sticks with you for weeks — that’s more uncommon, and it warrants consulting with a professional.

Change in habits or interest

People are constantly in flux, especially when they are young. The activities they loved today may bore them tomorrow — that’s what the idea of phases is about. Sometimes a hobby is just a phase, and you get over it in time. That’s normal.

What is not normal is you suddenly no longer finding joy in doing something you loved, and maybe not even finding joy in doing much of anything anymore. Which makes you hunker down and stick to doing only what you must, spending your free time indulging in anything that will let you stop thinking and pass the time.

One of the symptoms of depression is anhedonia, which dampens your ability to feel pleasure. Without feeling the pleasure you used to, your goals and motivations start changing, and that leads to a change of habits. Again, people change habits naturally, but depression may also be a cause. Especially if an old passion was dropped without an apparent motivation, and without anything else taking its place.

Natural remedies, like chamomile extract, CBD oil, and some strains of marijuana have been found to help alleviate the symptoms of depression. Visit CannaConnection.de if you’d like to know more about cannabis and its culture.