How to identify depression in a person symptoms. Change in appearance. Test for determining depression in women

Sadness and slight sadness is not a reason to seek help from a specialist. Negative emotions are experienced by all people from time to time. But, if depression for a long time prevents you from living normally, working, enjoying simple things, then a real illness can be the cause. In this article, you will learn how to self-diagnose depression. Also on this page you will find a useful test that will help make a preliminary diagnosis.

Attention! For accurate identification ailment is not enough self-passing tests. Be sure to contact a professional psychologist.

Women are more emotional and prone to sharp drops mood, so you should not immediately mistake any weekly blues for a mental disorder. When apathy and a feeling of sadness are pronounced, not leaving you for more than two weeks, this may already be a sign of depression.

Main symptoms:

1. Depressed mood, melancholy.
2. Feeling of despair, loss of taste and meaning of life.
3. Significant exacerbation of fears, feelings of shame.
4. Anxiety, apprehension, tension.
5. Irritability, abrupt change emotions, for example, from despondency to aggression.
6. Self-flagellation, continuous guilt.
7. Uncertainty, low self-esteem, dissatisfaction with oneself. Constant search for flaws in yourself. Fear of making mistakes.
8. Hobbies, favorite food, series or music - everything that previously brought pleasure ceases to please.
9. Dullness of feelings, periodic apathy.

Physiological manifestations

An important sign of depression is the presence of the following health problems:

1. Sleep disturbance. Excessive sleepiness or insomnia.
2. Failure in work digestive system. Most often it is constipation.
3. Excessive appetite or complete absence.
4. Problems with libido: complete lack of interest in sex.
5. Increased fatigue. Habitual loads cause impotence.
6. Observed discomfort or even pain in the muscles of the skeleton, stomach, heart.

behavioral signs

Usually a woman tries to eliminate physical discomfort, but the disease continues to develop. Even physiological symptoms disappear, depression can be identified by the following behavioral features:

1. Apathy, lack of initiative, unwillingness to set goals and actively achieve them.
2. A woman loses interest in communicating with friends, prefers solitude, avoids contact with society.
3. Conscious rejection of entertainment.
4. Tendency to use intoxicating substances: alcohol, drugs, various stimulants.
5. Sloppiness appears, a woman ceases to strive to look attractive, even neglects to comply with general rules hygiene.

Several symptoms relate to the peculiarities of thinking. The following cognitive signs indicate that the patient is suffering from depression:

• often have suicidal thoughts;
• awareness of one's own uselessness, insignificance, impotence;
• thinking slows down, there is a lack of attention;
• negative perception of oneself and others prevails.

Types of depression

If you are wondering what forms this disease can take, check out this table:

The main causes of depression in women

The development of the disease is usually preceded by tragic events. This may be the death of loved ones or problems in personal life, followed by whole complex unfortunate circumstances.

Attention! There are people whose personality has already developed with a predisposition to depression due to received in childhood psychological trauma. In such individuals, one small amount of stress can trigger the disease mechanism.

Most often, the appearance of depression in a woman is caused by the presence of one of the following factors:

Don't forget about old age: in old age, women have to experience the death of close friends, acquaintances, often - husbands. Loneliness is followed by a feeling of helplessness, uselessness, abandonment.

Video - What is depression and how it manifests itself

Test for determining depression in women

Try to take a questionnaire created by the famous American psychotherapist Aaron Beck. The test consists of 21 items, below them are several statements. You must choose for each item one statement with which you agree.

For each selected first statement, you get 0 points. The second - 1 point, the third and fourth - 2 and 3 points, respectively.

Attention! The test results should not be interpreted as an axiom. They can only serve as a hint in deciding whether to visit a specialist.

At all times, there have been diseases with beautiful names, which were not only prestigious to get sick - rather, it was fashionable to say that you have them, or to replace them with real ailments. It was worth saying “monstrous influenza” instead of “terrible snot” - and those around you immediately imbued with respect for you and your fine organization.

Today, it has become such a disease that everyone talks about, often not understanding the original meaning of the name. It is customary to write off everything on it: impotence, wrecked jobs and unwillingness to go to the evening of the reunion of graduates. At the same time, few people know that depression is a very specific ailment caused by such complex biochemical changes nervous system, what a common person will not be able to call them even for money. It is actually quite difficult to catch depression, and what is considered to be it is, as a rule, a depressive personality accentuation, a bad mood, or even ordinary hatred of people.

Do you want to know the whole truth about whether you have depression? You have two scenarios to choose from: either you go to a psychoanalyst, and he gives you clinical test, with a 100% guarantee diagnosing depression; or you pass exactly the same clinical test that we took as a keepsake when we ourselves went to be tested.

Yes, and keep in mind: the causes of depression are usually very specific - prolonged mental stress, overwork, chronic brain injury, severe and prolonged diseases of internal organs, surgical operations, deficiency of blood supply to the brain and congenital neurochemical disorders. If you don’t have and never had any of the above, it means that you probably don’t need any tests here. Just stop feigning depression and it will pass!

According to international classification ICD-10 diseases, depression is not even one disease, but seven different ones. In the sense that it is divided into groups.

neurotic D. due to internal conflict.
Reactive D., which is a reaction to mental trauma.
Endogenous D., which is generally easy to treat, since it has neurochemical causes.

classic D.
hidden D.

Small D.
Big D.

Of course, these types can be combined. For example, major depression can be both classical and reactive. But that's not all. For MAXIM readers only! Having caught a hidden depression, you get two more varieties of the disease as a gift!

Jokes aside. Latent depression can be somatized (this is when, in addition to a bad mood, you are tormented by some kind of bodily ailment like stomach disease or dystonia) or masked. In this case, you will have all the symptoms of another disease, such as appendicitis. However, an autopsy will show you didn't have it.

Under what ailments does depression like to disguise itself?

Pain, heaviness, distension, cold or heat in the abdomen, nausea, loss of appetite. Of course, all the fault and the truth may be an expired mold on the cheese. However, depression often uses these symptoms to set doctors on the wrong track. The condition of the stomach worsens in the morning, and by the second half of the day you already start picking the contents of the plate with a sad look, feeling relieved. Patients are admitted to hospitals with suspected acute appendicitis and cholecystitis, but the intervention of surgeons does not bring relief.

To say where exactly it hurts, a person cannot. More often the pain appears to him in the form of iron hoops squeezing the skull, or something that crawls inside the head. The condition, as in the case of the abdomen, worsens in the morning, and by the evening passes. These patients are diagnosed with migraine or vegetovascular dystonia and then they drink useless painkillers for years.

Cunning depression mimics neuralgia trigeminal nerve(it goes from ear to eyebrow and mandible) and inflammation of the temporomandibular joint. Desperate patients ask dentists to remove them completely healthy teeth which sometimes, by the way, brings temporary relief. The mask of depression also causes a surprisingly vivid sensation of roughness and hairiness of the tongue.

Imitation of interruptions in the work of the heart, burning or cold behind the sternum. The results of the cardiogram do not correspond to the patient's complaints, but out of pity, the doctors prescribe heart medications for him. They reduce pain, but do not remove it completely.

You think that you have sciatica, joint diseases and neuralgia. But the doctors, looking at your X-ray, twist a finger at the temple. At the same time, your joints hurt not where they should, but a few centimeters higher.

Depression without sleep disorders is like Fedor Konyukhov without legs. Moreover, sometimes insomnia can be generally the only symptom masked depression. In this case, you will wake up unrested, have breakfast with an aversion to food, and then come to work already tired and immediately fall for a cigarette or a cup of coffee. Peaks of activity are possible, but usually they occur at 10-12 in the morning, and you are still sleeping at that time, because in the evening, despite being tired, you could not fall asleep and tossed and turned all night. And so every day.

You understand that there are no sharks in the soup, and aliens, for the most part, do not want to kill you. But this does not help to overcome baseless fear. However, exotic phobias of depression are rare. More often it causes fear of death from the cessation of breathing, panic attacks. The phobia usually gets worse at night and in the morning.

Erectile dysfunction? Accelerated or, conversely, delayed ejaculation? Do not rush to bequeath your penis to science. Maybe it's the depression again. By the way, the famous "demon in the ribs" (and speaking scientific language, desire for ever stronger sexual stimuli) is also a sign of depression, and usually the earliest.

Indulgence bad habits brings short-term relief. Hangovers or withdrawals are accompanied by terribly violent symptoms taken from the previous eight points.

Clinical Test for Depression

You have 44 groups of statements in front of you. In each of them, choose one answer that best describes how you feel. Remember, your task is not to win, but to find out the truth. Answer sincerely. To make it easier for you to do this, we didn’t even obsessively “make fun” of the answers, as we usually do.

How to deal with depression

This part will be of interest primarily to people who have scored serious amounts in the test. If you do not have depression, according to the results, you can read this block with detached gloating. So, independent exit out of a sad state can take months and even years, and even then, provided that you protect yourself from stress - preferably, a monastery wall or a grove of palm trees. It's easier to see a doctor, because depression is curable. In fact, it is a failure in metabolism. Doctors will treat you not only with pills, but also with heart-to-heart conversations (the most unpleasant part). Without the simultaneous elimination of physiological and psychological factors a person cannot be cured.

Your best friend for the next six months should be a psychotherapist. Experienced mental trauma, mental stress, quarrels with others and internal conflicts, heavy worries about one's own health - all this can underlie depression. Treatment only powerful pills(without psychotherapy), of course, helps, but after the withdrawal of drugs, the disease may visit you again.

What will they give you

Sometimes especially skilled psychotherapists bring their unfortunate patients out of depression without medication at all. Alas, in some cases, drugs are indispensable: a neglected disease destroys the brain so much that the balance of neurotransmitters does not restore itself.

The basis of any course of treatment. Side effects and doses may vary, but the purpose of the drugs is the same - to eliminate the biochemical basis of depression.

And these useful pills will help you to establish the supply of brain cells with energy and other little things useful in your work. Actually, these are not some secret substances, but the same vitamins that healthy people drink to increase stress resistance and immunity.

By themselves, these strong drugs does not cure depression. But they struggle with its symptoms (and sometimes even succeed in this): longing, fear, bodily manifestations. Antidepressants do not give an immediate effect, therefore, to make it more fun for you to wait for it, the doctor will probably prescribe “trunks” for you.

In fact, these are ordinary sedatives, but they are so strong that they can drive even an elephant into a calm state, which has just lost all relatives, both tusks and a share in the business. Antipsychotics reduce arousal and eliminate fears, bring the patient out of a mental impasse and reduce the bodily manifestations of masked depression.

However, the matter may not reach neuroleptics. Doctors usually start a course of a cocktail of antidepressants and biostimulants. And only if it did not work, add two other components.

Why it might not help

Pills are almost useless unless the therapist has addressed the personal causes of depression—for example, forced you to quit.

Do you have untreated diseases? thyroid gland, diabetes, hypertension and other ailments, causing depression.

You interrupted the course too soon, delighted with the improvement. If you stop taking antidepressants before a stable effect appears, depression will develop again.

Sometimes the disease returns a year or two after the completion of the course, because you stopped seeing a doctor and taking antidepressants in preventive purposes. And they give you another test...

Sheehan Anxiety Scale

If the first test is negative, move on to the second. The Sheehan test will help you find out if you even have anxiety, a condition that precedes depression. If you don't get here enough points, then, alas, you are mentally healthy man, who now only needs to come up with new excuses for his impotence and innate laziness.

Have you been bothered during the last week by...

Most people tend to think that depression has spread among society relatively recently. This opinion is erroneous, since even in antiquity people suffered from similar symptoms. The only difference is that they called the disease not depression, but melancholy.

It is very important to notice and recognize depression in time, as this disease can lead to severe mental disorder. How to understand that you have depression, because it can sometimes be confused with or feeling unwell? Often depression occurs in people due to severe or prolonged stress, excessive emotionality and excitement. And yet, what are the symptoms of depression?

Symptoms of depression

First of all, the occurrence of depression is associated with human emotions. All of them can manifest themselves individually. Some tend to experience a sense of anxiety, completely joyful emotions disappear, pessimistic views appear on any event that occurs. Some people tend to experience a feeling of deep despair and low self-esteem in this state.

How to understand that a person has depression, by his behavior? The concentration of attention is lost, motor retardation, isolation and lack of communication are observed. There is a love for loneliness, alcohol, in some cases addiction to drugs.

Another symptom of depression can be called a change in a person's thinking. All interest in life and previous activities is lost, thoughts often appear about their own uselessness, that he is superfluous, that he burdens relatives with his presence.

How do you know when depression is starting? physiological manifestations? This is manifested in sleep disturbances and the appearance of insomnia, lost normal rhythm life. A person does not want to sleep when it is needed, that is, at night, or sleep comes to him very late. Ultimately, fatigue quickly sets in, both with mental and physical activity, even insignificant.

The main factors and forms of depression

The main factor in which depression may occur is excessive brain load due to severe stress. It may be based, for example, on some psychosocial factors. The resulting depression is called reactive depression. How to understand that you are depressed? If a person has two or more symptoms of depression for at least two weeks, then this is already a reason to contact a specialist.

Depression is distinguished by its main forms, depending on the severity and duration of the disease. Resistant depression is a form of depression in which, after two treatment courses of antidepressants, there is no complete recovery or the clinical effect is partially achieved.

It manifests itself not only with the main symptoms, but is also accompanied by an increase in body weight, great drowsiness, the so-called "brutal" appetite and emotional reactivity. Postnatal depression can occur in women after childbirth. The short recurrent form is so named because of its duration. With this depression, people experience the symptoms of this disease once or twice a month, they can last for about a week or less.

The female form of depression

It is very common to come across information that female body more prone to depression than men. In addition, men and women can be observed different symptoms occurrence of the disease. The question of how to understand that you have depression torments many women. You just need to analyze the symptoms that have appeared. In the fairer sex, it can often manifest seasonal depression. During this period of time, they will benefit from light therapy, massage, etc. It is also common for women to experience symptoms such as indigestion, hormonal changes, anxiety and fear of exacerbation chronic pain.

male form

In men, the symptoms of depression can be completely different. "How do I know if I'm depressed?" - they are interested. Firstly, it appears spontaneously and rather sharply, an oppressed emotional state can arise for others for no apparent reason, thereby a clear underestimation of self-esteem occurs. As a result, there may be an attraction to alcohol or some psychotropic drugs.

Signs of major and chronic depression

Some patients may show signs. So how do you know if you have depression? Such people feel completely useless and unnecessary, they lose their vital interest, they constantly experience overwhelming melancholy. But all this, fortunately, is treated with therapy, drugs. If deep depression is not eliminated in time, it can develop into chronic depression. Symptoms of such a disease can manifest themselves for several years:

• the emergence of a feeling of sadness, a pessimistic mood towards life;
• manifestations of sleep disorders, and sometimes its partial or complete absence;
• headaches that do not stop after taking painkillers;
• frequent pain in the joints and muscles, feeling of weakness;
• deterioration of the entire digestive system.

Chronic depression should be treated with drug therapy combined with special diet, which is able to increase the level of serotonin in the blood to the desired levels. This hormone is also called the happy hormone.

But even scarier chronic depression may be a hidden form. And how to recognize it, how to understand that you have depression? As a rule, not all patients immediately seek help from a doctor, thinking that they are just tired. But later all the same symptoms inherent in depression are found out ( pain in various parts body, loss of appetite and body weight, disturbed sleep and decreased libido). A person with a latent form of the disease may feel constant headaches, muscle or bone, he always looks restless and nervous, etc. The most popular method of treatment hidden depression considered medicinal.

Signs of teenage depression

Unfortunately, even teenagers can suffer from such a disease as depression, and there can be many reasons. This is his lack of friends, indifference and misunderstanding of his own parents, sometimes reaching the cause of teenage depression can even be hormonal changes or low self-esteem due to poor school performance or disgust with one's own body.

How to understand what and what he needs help? Firstly, appetite disappears, a breakdown appears, which is accompanied by headaches and a weakened immune system. The teenager begins to suffer from drowsiness or lack of sleep. He can constantly cry, talk about his own uselessness, take everything to heart, begins to lead a closed, uncommunicative lifestyle.

Treatment for depression

To save a child from depression, the help of a child psychotherapist is needed. It will help to find its causes, strengthen self-esteem. For the treatment of mild forms of depression, you may need only soothing herbs and the elimination of the cause that started the disease. Parents, in turn, should improve relationships, both with the child and with each other.

Antidepressants are prescribed for children to treat depression in rare cases. They are mostly prescribed for adults. Adults for treatment severe forms depression may be prescribed pharmacotherapy in combination with psychotherapy. Physical exercises in some cases, treatments may provide positive impact. AT individual cases depression is treated with music therapy, dance therapy, aromatherapy, magnetotherapy, etc.