How Depression May Affect Your Life

How Depression May Affect Your Life:

• Your place is a mess; laundry and dishes are piled up, mail is unopened, etc. (Assuming you usually stay on top of these things).
• You’ve been making excuses to friends why you can’t get together with them, or you’re telling them you’re “just too tired.”
• You’ve really let yourself go – you’re wearing clothes that make you look dumpy, you’ve stopped exercising, you’re not shaving unless it’s absolutely necessary.
• You’re wearing mostly dark colors.

• You’re putting off things that need to be done: your car registration, taking that book back to the library, buying a birthday present for someone.
• You can’t remember the last time you laughed a real laugh.
• You don’t feel like you can handle your job anymore, even though nothing has changed so far as increased workload or responsibility.
• You’re drinking or using drugs to escape the pain.
• You’ve been to the doctor a lot recently, for things like headaches, stomach aches, fatigue, but the doctor can’t find anything wrong. Or you have convinced yourself you have a life-threatening illness – AIDS or cancer or a tumor.
• You wake up in the middle of the night, and can’t go back to sleep. During the day you sleep a lot to escape from your life.
• It takes you a whole weekend to do chores that used to only occupy a morning.
• Since you’ve lost interest in things you used to enjoy doing, you try a lot of different activities in the hopes that you can find something to occupy your time.
• You have no ability to imagine or conceive of your life even a few days ahead – no plans, no hopes. You can’t even be sure you’ll still be here.
• You wear the same clothes a few days in a row – choosing new ones is too much effort.
• You lose things, you lose track of things and can’t always remember what day it is.
• You’ve pretty much stopped eating, or caring what you eat and whether it tastes good.
• On the flip side, you may be eating all the time because you’re bored and hope that food will somehow satisfy the vacant feeling you have.
• You’ve lost interest in sex or even physical affection. Hugging someone doesn’t feel any different from leaning against a wall.
• You’re reading escapist books (fantasy, sci-fi, romance, mystery) with little effort, but anything more demanding mentally (the classics, reading for school) is too much effort.
• You’re avoiding talking to anyone to whom you have an obligation (your boss, friends who you’re ignoring).
• You’re watching TV constantly – lying on the couch or on/in your bed flicking the remote seems to be the most effort you can deal with.
• You hope you don’t run into anyone you know while you’re out. Not only is maintaining a normal conversation difficult, but you are sure they’ll notice something is wrong with you.

from wingsofmadness.com