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Step 1
Understand that clinical depression represents a major change from typical behavior. To be classed as major depression, you must experience five or more of the following severe depression symptoms during the same two week period, and one of the symptoms must be depressed mood (despair, sadness, emptiness) or loss of interest. To evaluate your depression symptoms, ask yourself the following questions:
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Step 2
Do you experience persistent feelings of despair, sadness, or emptiness all day long? This could be based on your subjective feelings, or other people's observations of you (e.g., crying all the time, flat affect).
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Step 3
Do you lack interest, pleasure, or enjoyment in nearly all activities? Again, this may be based on your own feelings, or on the objective observations of others.
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Step 4
Do you experience daily psychomotor agitation or retardation? In plain English, agitation involves feelings of restlessness and edginess, whereas retardation involves feelings of sluggishness, lack of energy, and inability to complete even basic daily tasks (bathing, grooming, cooking, etc.).
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Step 5
Have you experienced a sudden weight loss or gain of 5% or more of your body weight in a month, without trying to do so? Have you had a sudden change in appetite, causing you to eat significantly more or less than you typically would?
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Step 6
Do you have persistent feelings of fatigue, sleepiness, and loss of energy?
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Step 7
Do you suffer from sleep disturbances in the form of insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping all the time)?
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Step 8
Do you have a persistent inability to concentrate, think clearly, or focus to bring tasks to completion? This may be particularly apparent on the job.
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Step 9
Do you experience unfounded feelings of deep guilt, or persistent feelings of worthlessness?
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Step 10
Do you experience persistent or recurrent thoughts about death, general thoughts about suicide with no specific plan in mind, or specific suicidal ideations? If you are considering suicide, either generally or with a specific plan, seek immediate treatment or call 911.
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Step 11
Even if you have fewer than five of these symptoms, and if you experience them frequently but not often enough to meet the criteria for major depression, consider talking to your doctor about whether you may have a mild form of depression. While severe depression symptoms generally result in a greatly diminished ability to function, mild depression can cause fatigue, sleep disturbances, and inhibit your productivity and enjoyment of life. It may be worthwhile to consider natural depression remedies and lifestyle changes for both mild and severe depression. However, if your depression is severe, you should see your doctor right away to discuss the options.
Comments
seradis said
on 2/27/2009 Great article on depression. Thanks! 5*