Understanding Depression
What Is Depression?
Depression is more than just a feeling of sadness, it is a diagnosable mental illness where a person is living with persistent low mood, loss of interest in other activities, feelings of worthlessness, and compromised well-being over a period of time.
Those living with mental health conditions like depression also experience depression repeatedly. Unlike feelings of sadness, clinical depression can be overwhelming and come in waves, where it changes a person’s perspective, daily routines, feelings of self-worth, and even influences thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
However, while depression can be common, it can still be dangerous if misunderstood or left unaddressed. Depression can be related to thoughts of self-harm, necessitating the support of healthcare providers, as well as life-threatening suicidal ideation or suicide attempts.
If you are concerned about a loved one, contacting professional support to learn more about depression symptoms and options is necessary.
Differentiating between sadness and depression can be challenging. Talking to a healthcare professional about the signs and symptoms associated with depression, learning to listen without judgment, and knowing options to act quickly can be instrumental in offering support for a loved one, offering educated support, and early intervention.
What Are Some Types of Depression?
Depression takes many forms, and common types of depression include:
- Major depressive disorder (MDD)
- Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
- Persistent depressive disorder
- Bipolar depression
Each experience with depression is different. Not only can the type of depression vary between individuals, but also their experiences, severity, and even the duration of depressive episodes can all be different.
Knowing how to help someone with depression starts with understanding their unique experiences with these mental health problems.
What Causes Depression?
Depression can be the result of a myriad of different factors, including genetic predisposition, environmental factors, and personal experiences.
Factors that may influence the development of depression include:
- Being the victim of bullying
- Learned negative thinking patterns
- Persistent or chronic stress
- Lack of self-care outlets
- Trauma
- Grief
- Major life changes
- Unhealthy or toxic relationships
- Substance abuse
There is never a single cause of depression. Each person’s experiences that led to these feelings are different, requiring personalized therapy sessions and support to address them.
How Does Depression Affect Daily Life?
Depression is a persistent feeling of low mood, and those living with depression can experience episodes that greatly impact daily life, wellness, behaviors, and more.
Those living with depression may experience:
- Decreased productivity, attentiveness, or attendance at work or school
- Emotional and physical withdrawal from friends, family, and loved ones, or even a support group
- Neglect of self-care
- Compromised personal hygiene
- Difficulty sleeping or inconsistent sleep patterns
- Compromised diet or nutritional health
- Difficulty making decisions
- Lowered emotional resilience
Those living with depression often have regular routines disrupted, with a lack of energy, motivation, or the heavy weight of depression making it difficult to tend to daily responsibilities.
Signs and Symptoms of Depression
What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Depression?
The most common symptoms of depression include persistent low mood lasting for more than two weeks, loss of interest in previous hobbies or social groups, difficulty tending to responsibilities, low energy and motivation, and physical and emotional fatigue.
What Emotional Signs Indicate Depression?
Some emotional signs include feelings of worthlessness or lowered self-worth, guilt, a sense of pointlessness, sadness, increased irritability, reduced emotional resilience to even small stresses, or feeling emotionally disconnected or numb.
What Behavioral Signs Indicate Depression?
People with depression may isolate from friends, family, and loved ones, lose interest in personal hobbies, skip work or school, miss meals, or have drastic changes in sleep schedule, either not sleeping enough or sleeping at odd times.
An individual may also increase the use of drugs or alcohol in an attempt to self-medicate and push down feelings of depression, despite mounting negative consequences. However, this often leaves a person feeling worse when the immediate effects of these substances wear off.
What Physical Signs Indicate Depression?
Fatigue, exhaustion, changes in appetite, aches and pains, and difficulty concentrating may indicate depression.
Physical signs can be further exacerbated by an unhealthy diet or missed meals, leading to increased fatigue.
How Can I Recognize the Signs of Depression?
Common signs to look out for include:
- Length of episodes: Depression can be diagnosed if an individual exhibits depressive symptoms for a prolonged period of time, typically experiencing these challenges more days than not and lasting for at least two weeks.
- Changes from normal life and routines: Each person’s experiences will be different. Noticing not just symptoms of depression, but how they differ from other areas of daily life is crucial, especially around personal hobbies, such as staying in on game nights or missing multiple meals.
- Interferences with daily responsibilities: An inability to tend to regular responsibilities around the house, or especially skipping work or classes, can indicate the need for change and professional care.
Identifying depression in a loved one can be challenging. However, the aforementioned signs can help you determine if your loved one may benefit from professional care, or when to call for more information regarding depression, treatment, and available options.
Identifying signs of depression, observing how they impact daily life, and tracking how frequent and long-lasting these symptoms are are all important pieces of information when recognizing depression. Noticing symptoms worsening over time, that they are lasting longer, or are becoming more frequent, can all indicate the need for change.
However, if a loved one expresses thoughts or signs of potential self-harm, then there is no reason to wait. Contact a dedicated intervention support helpline, as well as a crisis lifeline, for effective suicide prevention and care as soon as possible.
Risks and Dangers of Untreated Depression
What Are Short‑Term Risks of Untreated Depression?
Untreated depression can lead to:
- Compromised physical health and emotional wellness
- Substance abuse
- Strained personal relationships
- Difficulty tending to responsibilities
- Compromised decision-making
- Lowered feelings of self-worth
- Difficulty concentrating
- Compromised workplace and academic performance or attendance
What Are the Long‑Term Risks of Untreated Depression?
Long-term depression can lead to a myriad of additional challenges that can impact an individual later in life, with both children, adolescents, professionals, and older adults all continuing to experience the lingering effects of depression until addressed, including:
- Chronic depression or learned lifestyles make confronting it more challenging
- Repeated substance abuse and increased risk of addiction
- Long-term memory issues or difficulty focusing
- Difficulty maintaining employment
- Increased risk of suicidal ideation or self-harm
- Strained personal relationships
- Compressed feelings of self-worth and confidence
- Loss of personal goals or interests
- Chronic aches and pains
- Increased risk of heart disease
How Do Co‑Occurring Disorders Increase Risk?
Increased risk-taking behaviors, worsened mood, risk of overdose, blackouts, loss of job, and legal troubles are all possible when struggling with co-occurring disorders.
Substance use can also lead to a dangerous cycle, where depression causes a person to turn to alcohol or drugs to improve their mood. However, as these effects wear off, feelings of depression can return even stronger than before, prompting an individual to use more of a substance to continue pushing these feelings down.
Warning Signs of Worsening Depression
What Are Signs Depression Is Getting Worse?
Depression may be getting worse when:
- Episodes last longer than before or occur more frequently
- Increased substance use
- Changes in language to reflect more absolutist vocabulary or hopelessness
- Neglect of self-care and personal hygiene routines
- Feeling resigned to a life of depression
Noticing worsening signs of depression is the first sign that professional help may be necessary, not only to address depression, but also to prevent even further negative or possibly dangerous outcomes.
How Can I Recognize Suicidal Thoughts or Intent?
Changes in language, making passing comments about “being a burden” to others, even if presented as a joke, giving away possessions or things of monetary or sentimental value, or noticing a preoccupation with death can all indicate the possibility of suicidal thoughts, ideation, or intent.
If you notice these signs, contacting a professional interventionist, local facilities, or a crisis hotline can provide direct, structured support on how to take action.
What Should I Do if Someone Has Severe Depression or Talks About Suicide?
Listen without judgment, empower them to talk about it without interruption, stay with them (either in person or on the phone), and connect with a crisis specialist to assess the situation.
Depression is complicated, and you don’t have to understand each of these challenges to be sympathetic to these feelings. Regular check-in times and trying to learn about how they feel, rather than trying to minimize these feelings or their sources, can go a long way in helping a loved one begin to confront depression and its effects.
Supporting a Family Member or Friend
How Can I Support Someone With Depression?
If a loved one is living with depression, making yourself available and doing regular in-person check-ins or phone calls can help stay connected to a loved one, not only providing support but also being more attuned to any changes in behaviors, attitudes, language, or routines.
Additionally, some effective supportive actions include:
- Offer realistic and practical support, like providing transportation and preparing meals
- Respect boundaries without disconnecting from a loved one
- Validate their pains and feelings
- Take it at their pace
Depression can be devastating, but families and friends can be crucial supports in healing. However, knowing what to do and how to become an effective support takes work.
How Do I Begin a Conversation About Depression With a Loved One?
Choose a private and safe environment, and be specific about particular signs of depression to approach the situation with evidence, rather than feelings, accusations, or assumptions.
Keep these conversations intimate, without outside distractions, and at a time when neither party will have to leave for work or another appointment, so they can develop naturally.
What Questions Help Someone Open Up?
Consider asking questions like:
- What has been weighing on you the most lately?
- How long have you felt like this?
- What would make just this moment a little bit easier?
Keeping questions open-ended and validating is crucial.
How Do I Avoid Minimizing or Shaming?
Validating feelings, allowing them space to speak, and avoiding even unintentionally accusatory questions like “Why didn’t you go to work today?” can be crucial.
Depression isn’t something to “just get over.” Likewise, stay honest and avoid generic support like “It’ll get better.” This can feel dismissive, and condensing all of their feelings and experiences into just “it” can feel reductive and make it difficult to keep the conversation open.
Seeking Help for Depression
When Should I Consider Professional Help?
If symptoms last longer than two weeks, if episodes seem to be worsening or more frequent, and especially if thoughts of self-harm or concerns around suicidal ideation arise, then it is time to consider professional help.
What Evidence‑Based Treatments Should I Consider?
Evidence-based care like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), motivational interviewing, and behavioral therapy can all help to confront depression and its effects.
Some may benefit from medication management and the prescription of antidepressants. However, medication is not a replacement for other forms of therapy and should be used under the guidance of a mental health professional.
How Do I Find a Qualified Mental Health Professional?
A referral from a primary care provider, or working with an intervention specialist like Reflections Family Interventions, can help identify personal needs, provide education and information, offer referrals, and help you clearly structure your next step for the care you need.
Intervention & Depression Treatment
When Is a Family Intervention Appropriate?
If an individual living with depression refuses help or to acknowledge depression and its effects, if substances are being used as a coping strategy, or if there are any safety concerns, then an intervention may be necessary.
Interventions are also important resources for family members. Families can learn to set boundaries, educate themselves about depression, and embrace an educated, supportive role while structuring understanding, communication, and honesty with a loved one.
How Do Professionals Plan an Intervention?
Reflection Family Interventions works with families to practice what each person wants to say, set expectations, address unhelpful language or ideas, and provide family coaching, all before beginning an intervention.
Structured follow-up steps and ongoing family support are also available.
How Do I Prepare for a Family Intervention?
Work with the family to settle on a clear, concise message, outline the next step, stay honest and open, and allow everyone to speak, including those receiving an intervention.
Interventions can be emotionally charged, but also necessary, and rehearsal can go a long way in keeping messages clear.
Aftercare & Continuing Support
What Should Aftercare Include After Treatment?
Ongoing therapy for individuals and family members, medication management services, structured routine-building, family therapy for communication strategies and education, relapse prevention plans, and individualized case management are effective aftercare programs used by Reflection Family Interventions.
These approaches to aftercare support individuals and families throughout the healing journey.
How Can I Help Monitor Progress?
Keeping daily contact through open communication channels, writing down any new changes in behavior, the length of frequency of depressive episodes, and helping provide transportation to ongoing therapy and treatment can all help to manage progress.
Regular check-ins and open-ended questions can also help to address new challenges as they arise.
When Should We Reengage Clinicians or Intensify Care?
If a loved one begins skipping therapy or treatment appointments, experiences an increase in frequency or intensity of depressive episodes, begins reengaging in self-destructive coping mechanisms, or is unable to tend to their daily responsibilities, then intensifying care again may be necessary.
Take Care of Yourself
How Do I Prevent Burnout?
Supports have their own needs, and there are ways to continue providing care while still tending to personal needs to avoid burnout, including:
- Stay engaged in your own hobbies
- Establishing barriers
- Understanding that it is not your job to “fix” all the problems
- Don’t feel guilty for having your own hobbies
- Work with other family members to share supportive duties
- Find support groups with other supports and family members
- Engage in your own therapy to manage stress and self-care
- Allow yourself a break
Burnout can make it difficult to effectively support a loved one. Taking proactive steps, engaging in self-care, and establishing boundaries can empower family members not only to be better supports but also to avoid focusing their entire lives on support, keeping personal hobbies, goals, and relationships.
Being able to offer support to a loved one overcoming depression is amazing. Engaged, educated family members can make all the difference.
What Boundaries Should I Set to Stay Healthy?
Setting boundaries around personal responsibilities, like telling a loved one that you cannot skip work, having established mealtimes, bedtime, or times when you will not be by your phone, and financial boundaries to prevent enabling behaviors, can all be healthy ways of balancing your own health while still providing effective support.
FAQs
What are some encouraging words for depression?
Letting a loved one know that you are there for them, that you do not blame them or resent them for their depression, and telling them that it is okay to feel depression or that they are not expected to be “cured” right away can all be important to hear.
How long does treatment typically take?
Each situation is different, but, on average, an individual actively engaged in therapy can expect to see noticeable improvement within a couple of months.
However, this can also happen sooner or later, depending on the therapy used, their own commitment to change, and the severity of depression.
How can families stay engaged over time?
Celebrating milestones, daily check-ins, self-care, and boundaries can all ensure that families are invested for the long run.
Depression is complicated, and having access to the right support makes all the difference. Learn how Reflection Family Interventions can help your family address depression, working with you each step of the way to create a healthier future.