What is depression?
It can be tricky to know the difference between sadness and depression. Sometimes even when you “know” the difference, it’s still confusing when you’ve got a lot on your mind.
Sadness is a normal human emotion and reaction to painful experiences – it can be overwhelming, sometimes fading away quickly, but other times it might hang around for longer. It’s worth noting that sadness does help us process upsetting experiences in life, and avoiding it can be unhelpful in the long run.
Depression, on the other hand, is diagnosed by a health care professional when people encounter extended periods of intense low moods and sadness, at times not knowing why they are feeling so bad for such a long time.
Everybody's experience with depression will look a little different and include different symptoms.
Depression can look and feel like:
- Feeling extremely down or 'numb'
- Low motivation
- Wanting to be alone all the time
- Not hanging out with friends or spending with family
- Losing interest in usual hobbies and activities
- Skipping work, school, and social things
- Struggling to take care of hygiene and health
- Changes to eating like not feeling hungry
- Changes to sleep like oversleeping or lack of sleep
- Feeling worthless, hopeless, angry or irritable.
- Thoughts of suicide and self-harm
- Read on about the signs and symptoms of depression.
There are different types of depression:
- Major or clinical depression
- Depression with psychotic features
- Perinatal depression
- Read on about the different types
Depression is no easy path, but it's not one you have to walk alone. If you're going through it right now, please know that many people have been in similar shoes to you and made it out the other side. There are also lots of ways you can go about recovering from depression or even just learning how to manage it.
The face-to-face and digital mental health resources below only cover professional support - all types of support have a part to play. Feeling better has many facets, like feeling connected to others and having purposeful activities aligned with your interests and values.
Face to face mental health support
Scroll to read about mental health care plans, different kinds of therapy and search engines for professionals.
Face to face support by Bre-RO
Digital mental health support
Scroll to read about where to find digital mental health services.
Digital support by Bre-RO
Stay tuned for more
-
We'll regularly update this thread with new information
-
Our builders will lead discussions and share suggestions
-
Mental health professionals will share information with us about diagnosis, therapy and medication.
