Signs One is Experiencing Depression

Depression, the commonly heard terminology in today’s time, relates to a low mood/sadness, or unmet expectations. It is important to understand when a depression is a matter of serious concern, a clinical depression. This can be done by knowing the symptoms.  

As per psychiatrist at Wales Psychiatry Centre, who offers Best Depression Treatment in Cardiff, Clinical depression, also referred to by another name, the major depressive disorder, is a serious mental health illness primarily featuring extreme, persistent sadness and a lack of pleasure and interest. There is a cluster of characteristic features of clinical depression that a psychiatrist is aware of and can help in the diagnosis of clinical depression.

Here is a list of signs that indicate clinical depression:

• Emotional symptoms- Persistent, extreme low mood or sadness (pervasiveness); fluctuating mood responses to external events; anxiety; irritability; tearfulness; inability to feel pleasure in pleasurable activities (anhedonia); and motivational issues/loss of interest.
• Cognitive symptoms- Thought form-related issues like reduced speed of thought formation, reduced thought expression in speech, reduced speech speed and volume; suicidal thoughts; altered thought contents with self-blame, negativism, and pessimism; and subjective impairment in concentration, registration, and recall, more time in information processing, difficulty in decision making, or disturbed memory.
• Behavioral (observable) symptoms- Self-neglect; altered facial expression or lack of facial expressivity; psychomotor retardation or agitation; and social withdrawal.  
• Biological symptoms- Appetite/weight loss; loss of libido (sex drive); anergia (easy fatigue and generalised lassitude); sleep disturbance (especially late sleep insomnia); constipation and/or amenorrhoea.
• Psychotic symptoms- Delusions and hallucinations (only in severe cases).

Identifying the clinical depression symptoms is the first step in diagnosing the condition and then receiving appropriate treatment to manage/alleviate the symptoms. The number and quality of variety of symptoms that one is experiencing determine the severity of one’s depression. For accurate diagnosis, a clinical psychiatric interview and complete mental state examination are conducted. Based on the symptoms, the patient is provided with a tailored treatment plan.