Things could have just recently changed in your life and you don’t notice. Your friends or your work colleagues could be talking about it already and do not know how to let you know!
People around you have made some observation about you. You arrive a bit late at work. You easily become irritated by noise even if people are having a little tea time chat. You sleep late and you wake up early, and in the morning, you always feel tired at work. Your appetite has changed and it’s confusing. Sometimes you eat very little at times, but often you eat a lot. You have gained weight without notice.
It does not end there.
Your life is miserable. You do not enjoy even the little company that used to keep you busy at work. You hate everyone around you. When you think about work, you get angry.
Your sexual desire is gone and you are unaware that the partner is worried. It has been weeks without contact. They see you at home but they can’t feel your company. Everyone in your family fears you nowadays, but they are also confused. When they try to talk to you, you shout back and getting more worried about this irritability everyday!
Your performance at work has been declining. You have not been meeting your targets. The time you spend off work through sick leave is worrying. You are troubled a lot by headaches, neck and back aches. You have been on painkillers for a long time now. You now have pains similar to those of ulcers due to painkillers abuse.
Are you not missing something here? Are you really well?
Recently, you have been surrounded by suicidal tendencies. You are slowly losing hope. Sometimes you think you were better dead. You have not talked to anybody about this. Sometimes you get to blame your troubled marriage for the feeling. You have at some point tried to execute your suicidal plan, and you meant it.
You looked the earth and you saw nothing. There was really nothing for you, as you saw it with your eyes, but that was not really how things are because there is so much for you on earth!
These are signs of a mental problem called depression. It is among the conditions that are commonly misinterpreted for other conditions, especially for the pain disorders. It is like that because the common complaints are those that presents with pain.
Just do a self test.
Screen yourself for the following: sadness all the time, crying spells, fatigue, lack of sleep or excessive sleep, irritability, poor appetite or too much eating, feeling guilty all the time, recurrent thoughts of death and having a plan, social withdrawal and declining performance at work.
If you say yes to most of these then you could be depressed. Seek help; depression is a treatable condition!
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