" Only sentence I ’d feel alive is when I ’d drop a few days in a unexampled city walking 20 + km a day . "
Many of us have had struggles with depression at some point in our lives. It’s a different experience for everyone, but common symptoms include sadness and a loss of motivation.
Of course, depression can include many other symptoms, many of which are overlooked and just aren’t talked about enough. Inone Reddit thread, people shared their telltale depression symptoms, and it’s important we pay attention.
Here are 19 of the most insightful answers:
1.“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.”
– Prior_Butterfly_7839
2.“Not enjoying things you used to and becoming more withdrawn from friends and family. It can sneak up on you.”
– arseflare
3.“I stop cleaning. I also cancel plans and I take a while to message people back.”
– plaisirdamour
4.“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 every day for countless hours. The only time I’d feel alive is when I’d spend a few days in a new city walking 20+ kilometers a day.”
5.“Becoming obsessed with a TV 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 ’ve done it double . I take in the 20th day of remembrance ofLes Miserableson YouTube on repetition . I do n’t sleep together why . But it was really comforting . And I watched Lost Girlon repetition — a TV series about a succubus . I have n’t watched it since and altogether forgot about it until it late came up . "
– Angry_Sparrow
6.“Sleeping a lot and lack of self-care. I realized I was depressed when I woke up one day at 2 p.m., and saw how messy and disorganized my room was, and how my skin was practically cracking because I wasn’t lotioning it. People usually don’t realize that both things are very early signs of depression, and it’s usually treated as simply being lazy.”
– dogawogapoga
7.“Not feeling like doing ANYTHING. Not even stuff you like to do or that normally makes you at least content.”
– justjess8829
8.“Everything is boring and nothing is cool.”
– high - im - stupid
9.“Not cooking or grocery shopping, just ordering food.”
10.“Depression eyes. The heavy eyelids. I have big eyes, but when I’m depressed, they get small because the eyelids feel actually heavy, so my eyes are half closed. I look sleepy even though I’m not. My body is not tired, but my mind is. At this point, I can usually make the distinction very well between normal tired and depression tired. So I can do something about it before it gets too bad.”
– opal_23
11.“Hunger even after eating.”
– youronlynora
12.“Being slightly pissed off by nearly everything.”
– Zookeepergameodd4599
13.“When I catch myself staring at an off television for extended periods of time, or like, staring at a wall.”
14.“Wanting to quit activities 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 until 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.”
– Select_Notice_4813
15.“Besides the ‘obvious’ tells — sleeping too much, lack of hygiene, disinterest — I have a peculiar, particular tell of my own: I am dangerously, darkly depressed if I eat Baskin Robbin’s pink bubblegum flavoredice cream.”
" I do n’t know what that ’s about — dopamine - seek sugar , whimsy , etc . — but it ’s been enough of a pattern with me that I warned my family that if you see me with this , I NEED interference . That ’s all to say , you very well may have your own especial Depression Tell , and if you do , I encourage you to get your loved one know . You deserve to be here too . There ’s way for you at the table . "
– hereticallyeverafter
16.“You stop actively listening to music.”
– Rabrab123
17.“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.”
18.“I stop dreaming. Normally my dreams are vivid and frequent, but when I notice I haven’t dreamed in a while that’s when I know depression has crept in.”
– dangernoodle
19.“Something important to note is you can experience depression without being sad or melancholy or anything like that. It took me a long time to realize what I was feeling was depression because I wasn’t upset about anything. It was just extreme exhaustion and lethargy that made doing day-to-day tasks and making healthy choices increasingly harder.”
– whatwouldbuddhado
mention : Responses have been cut for length / clarity .
