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Mental and Physical Symptoms of Clinical Depression

Symptoms of Clinical Depression

Symptoms of clinical depression (or major depressive disorder) can be widely varied, both between people and in the same person. In fact, one person may have many different symptoms that seem unrelated, but all stem from depression.

There are two types of symptoms of major depression: mental and physical:

Mental Symptoms of Depression

The most common mental symptom is excessive sadness. This can be difficult to recognize in another person, but easy to recognize in yourself. If you’ve been feeling sad for more than a few weeks (especially if there hasn’t been a traumatic event in your life), you should talk to your doctor. This pervasive sadness is one of the characteristic qualities of someone suffering from major depressive disorder.

Related to this are feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness.

Other people may find that they don’t feel sad, but are consistently irritable or easily annoyed.

Another characteristic of many people suffering from depression is that they lose their interest in things that they used to be excited about. This can include things like a job, favorite hobbies, sports, or seeing friends.

Physical Symptoms of Depression

The physical symptoms of depression, like the mental symptoms, vary greatly from person to person. 

Many people who suffer from clinical depression feel tired (fatigue) and lethargic all the time, no matter how much they sleep.
Fatigue due to depression  is a state where you don’t have/feel the energy to do anything. All you want to do is lay in bed and stay there - you feel too tired to get up and even make a cup of coffee - eventually even going to the bathroom is too much.

Others have trouble sleeping, no matter how tired they are. Many people find that they sleep fine at the beginning of the night, but regularly wake up very early in the morning and can’t get back to sleep.


Appetite can also be affected by depression - some people find that they overeat when they’re sad and gain weight because of this, while others lose their appetite, causing weight loss.

Still others have different physical symptoms - some people feel nauseous, or get muscle aches, or headaches.

Feeling depressed is some kind of stress to the body and the body will react to this with a sensitivity of unexplained pain. This pain can present itself in the neck joints, lower back, and also internally in your stomach, liver, kidneys. Chronic headaches also are highly associated with depression.

    Read more here on → Physical Symptoms of Clinical Depression

Lower immunity against sicknesses also has an association with clinical depression.

Because the symptoms of depression vary so much from person to person, it can be hard to tell if someone you know (or you yourself) has depression. But by remembering the symptoms above and paying close attention to how someone is behaving, you’re more likely to be able to catch major depression before it becomes a serious problem.

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