If you're reading this article,
possibility that you aren't feeling quite like yourself is pretty high. At very least, you know of someone who is feeling down. Whether this person is you or someone you care about, know that concern is on other side of these words and help is all around.
Everyone, for any number of reasons, feels down at times. The cause can be as major as grief for a lost one, presence of an illness or shattering of a personal dream. It can be as "minor" as a disagreement, a speeding ticket or stubborn extra pounds. Usually events such as these require time to "heal", then if healing was complete, you begin feeling more like yourself.
However, if feelings are more than just "the blues" time will make you feel worse rather than better. Clinical Depression is more than a passing phase and does not just disappear on its own. It affects more than 19 million Americans each year, and numbers are steadily climbing. Given fact that this illness is very debilitating and gravely affects every aspect of sufferer's life, it is amazing that less than half of these people even seek help!
A contributing factor to this is believed to be a failure to recognize symptoms. People generally think, "This will pass. I'm just down..." Infuriatingly enough, many females suffer from erroneous claim that their feelings are due to H word, "hormones". The cynic in me believes that one day, every ill in world will be attributed to hormones!
Rant aside, let's look closely at symptoms of depression. First of all, promise me you'll make a point of never misusing this word ever again. How many of us attach "depresion" name tag to everything from a bad mood to side effects of a rainy-day. People suffer from and deal with this illness on a daily basis. Overusing name lessens it's importance and misusing it makes lines between "blues" and "depression" hazier.
--Signs of Depression
An everpresent feeling of sadness and emptiness. You feel often as though there are tears behind your eyes, just waiting to well up.
