5 Ways Depression Can Secretly Ruin Your Life
According to the Office of National Statistics, about one in five people have experienced common symptoms of depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is more than double than the numbers recorded before the pandemic, which raises more and more concerns among specialists.
Whether we talk about financial instability, working from home while caring for children or health concerns, there are dozens of factors which increase the risk for developing anxiety and depression.
But what does depression feel like?
Depression is more than we think
Probably the first descriptive words that comes to our minds are sadness, pessimism and lack of motivation – which is entirely true. However, it’s equally important to acknowledge that depression can manifest entirely different from one human to another – so it might not always come as you’d expect.
Although it is the most common mental health diagnosis in the U.S., depression is still a major challenge for specialists in terms of diagnosis and treatment.
Rosie Weatherly, information content manager at Mind, explains that mental health issues can affect our behavior, thoughts, feelings and sometimes they might even bring physical symptoms.
While some people suddenly become very anxious about everything around them, others are feeling empty, numb and meaningless.
One thing is for sure: depression should not be ignored especially during such a difficult time and it’s crucial that we know the signs for this common mental health diagnosis.
With that in mind, here are less known symptoms of depression:
1. Impatience
Linda Blair, clinical psychologist and author of Key to Calm, explains that depression can sometimes cause anger and rage unexplainably.
Now, if you’re stuck at home with a full-time job and two children to take care of, it’s perfectly understandable why you snap more than usual. The pandemic definitely has something to say when it comes to our anger management skills and there’s no reason to be too hard on ourselves for it.
However, if you really can’t understand why you’re being so angry, so frequently, it might be time to take a closer look at your other actions; this way, you can find out whether you may secretly have depression or not.
