Depression is a mental illness that plagues 14.8 million people in the United States and more than 300 million worldwide. Due to the wide variety of different signs, many people in the United States can be unaware that they have depression, simply chalking it up to what they deem minor problems.
But with more than 50 symptoms, it can be hard to accurately identify it alone. So, here are a few things that you might overlook that could link to depression.
Changes in Sleep Patterns
Possibly one of the least-recognized symptoms of depression would be changes in sleep patterns. This change can range in severity and manifest in a variety of forms, including (but not limited to) insomnia, nightmares, waking throughout the night, waking up too early, or sleeping more than usual.
Changes in sleep patterns open up a gateway for increasing depression. After all, if you don’t get enough sleep, then you become more depressed—which in turn makes it even harder to sleep.
Headaches, Stomach Aches, and Backaches
When most people hear the words “mental illness,” it’s easy to assume that it’s all emotional or in someone’s head, but that is most definitely not always the case. Even though depression is a mental illness, it still can cause physical strain and backlash on the body.
Depression can cause digestive problems, headaches and migraines, exhaustion and fatigue, and occasional dizziness or lightheadedness. Aches and pains with no real explanation can be an early indicator of depression, though it’s always good to check with a primary care physician before heading to a therapist.
Trouble Concentrating And Poor Memory
Trouble concentrating and poor memory is a less-obvious symptom, but it can be related to depression. Sometimes it doesn’t even seem like something very problematic, just mildly annoying, but something like this can evolve into a much more serious problem over time and can severely decrease an individual’s levels of functionality.
This symptom can cause relationships to suffer, comprehension rates to drop, specific detail recollection to be impaired, and even basic tasks like driving to work in the morning could become dangerous if left unchecked.
Irritability And Isolation
This symptom is a little more subtle than the others, but while everybody gets irritable or craves some alone time occasionally, too much irritability or separation can be a sign that something much worse is at play.
This irritability and isolation can come in many forms (and can be caused by anything), which can lead to more symptoms of depression. Some symptoms include being a part of fewer social activities, difficulties in professional and home life, neglecting hobbies and interests – the list goes on and on. This particular symptom could even be tied back to the symptoms of poor concentration and memory.
Anxiety
Typically, anxiety is classified as a different mental illness, but upon close inspection, it’s easy to see that anxiety and depression can easily be related to one another. Many symptoms of anxiety and depression overlap one another, such as fatigue, restlessness, irritability, and sleep changes. Sometimes, it’s easy for someone with one illness to attribute all of their problems to the one they already know they have, but studies have shown that in several cases many people who have one have the other as well.
It’s always easy to ignore an abnormal symptom that could belong to the illness already possessed, but it’s still better to get it checked out by a mental health professional to prevent further problems down the road.
