How to Diagnose Depression

Depression is a serious mental condition that affects close to 15 million Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Symptoms include lack of motivation, feeling down and sleeping all day, but there are other signs a mental health professional will look for in order to diagnose this disorder. Depression has a variety of causes, but fortunately, it is usually treatable.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Watch for a serious lack of motivation or lethargic behavior in the person. Depressed people often have difficultly just getting out of bed in the morning.
2. Ask if the afflicted person has feelings of loneliness or worthlessness. Take note if the person often looks sad or seems like he is on the verge of crying for no apparent reason.
3. Check if the person is overly pessimistic about daily activities. Notice if the person has stopped enjoying hobbies and activities she usually finds enjoyable.
4. See if the person experiences constant feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Depressed people often feel like nothing they say or do matters to anyone.
5. Make a list of the person's sleeping schedule. Depressed people often have abnormal sleeping habits. Watch for oversleeping, insomnia or waking up very early in the day.
6. Find out more about the mental health history of the person. Depression is hereditary, but it often skips one or more generations. An understanding of the family's mental health history can facilitate the diagnostic process and help the individual find more effective treatment. However, depression can strike a person even if there is no history of the illness in his family.

Tips & Warnings

• Depression may come and go. Look at how his or her behavior has been changing in the past few days, weeks and months. There may be a pattern to their behavior which could help explain the cause of the person's depression.
• Depression can be caused by major changes or tragedies in a person's life. This includes the death of family members or friends, relationship problems, financial hardship or relocating to a different area.
• If you diagnose yourself as having the symptoms of depression, it is important to consider seeing a mental health care professional in order to receive an official diagnosis and discuss treatment options.
• Teenagers often go through particularly difficult times of depression. They are especially susceptible to depression because of changing social environments and changing hormones in their growing bodies. Both of these factors create new emotions that teenagers must learn to cope with. It is essential that parents watch for signs of depression in their teenagers so that they can be treated.