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About Depression

Am I Depressed?

Discussion Board

Depression Resources

Am I Depressed? 

Depression is defined clinically as a mood disorder.  It’s about feeling bad, most of the time, for over two weeks.  It is a constellation of symptoms that affect different aspects of our lives.  The following is a list of these.  These are criteria that are based on those that are used by Medical Doctors and Psychiatrists, from a diagnostic manual called the DSM IV (Criteria for Major Depressive Episode).

	Feeling sad or empty (or irritable), most of the day, nearly every day
	Loss of usual or former interest in, or pleasure and enjoyment in things, most of the day, nearly every day

If you find either or both of these first two apply to you, then continue to look at the next list of criteria. If neither of the above two criteria apply to you, then you are unlikely to be clinically depressed. 

	Loss of appetite, or overeating
	Loss of weight, or weight gain
	Being agitated, or the opposite – being markedly slower in doing things
	Tiredness and lack of energy
	Having interrupted sleep patterns, insomnia, or over-sleeping
	Loss of concentration, poor memory, or inability to make decisions about things
	Loss of self-esteem and feelings of self-worth
	Inappropriate guilt
	Avoiding social contact
	Suicidal thinking

If, including either or both of the first two criteria, you have identified a total of five, or more, symptoms, you may be clinically depressed, if:

(a)    These symptoms cause significant distress or interfere with your social, work, or other aspects of your life

(b)   The symptoms are not due to a medical condition or the effects of drugs or medication

(c)    You are not grieving the loss of a loved one

If you think you are depressed, having perused this symptom list, it is important to go to your Doctor for a formal diagnosis.  Your Doctor will determine whether there is some other medical condition to be investigated, and whether you need to consider anti-depressant medication, and advise you accordingly.

If you are still unsure whether or not you have Depression, you can get a clearer picture if you score yourself on the answers to the following set of questions.

This questionnaire is based on a well-recognized formal, standardised diagnostic measure of depression symptoms.  It is commonly used in clinical and research settings to decide whether or not a person is actually depressed, and if so, how depressed they are.

Read each set of four statements carefully. Decide which statement is most like how you feel (over the last two weeks and today), and mark the number beside it. If you cannot decide between two, mark the one that has the higher number. 

0	Generally, I do not feel sad		0	I do not think I am a failure
1	I feel sad a fair bit these days		1	I have failed more than I should have
2	I am sad pretty much all the time		2	I can see too many failures in my life
3	I am so sad I can’t stand it		3	I think I am a complete failure as a person
0	I don’t criticize myself overmuch		0	I am not feeling bad about my future
1	I am more self-blaming than before		1	I am not as hopeful about my future as before
2	I blame myself for all my faults		2	I feel I have nothing  much to look forward to
3	I blame myself for everything		3	I feel that my future is quite hopeless
0	I don’t cry more than usual		0	I get just as much pleasure out of things as before
1	I cry more now than before		1	I don’t find pleasure in things the way I used to
2	I cry a lot of the time now		2	I don’t find much pleasure in anything now
3	Now, I can’t even cry, though I want to		3	I don’t get any pleasure at all from things I used to
0	I am no more irritated now than usual		0	I am interested in people, and activities, as usual
1	I get annoyed and irritated more easily now		1	I am not as interested in people or activities, now
2	I get annoyed and irritated much more now		2	I have lost interest in other people and activities
3	It seems like I am irritable all the time now		3	I have no interest in people or activities anymore
0	I don’t feel guilty about anything much		0	I am no more restless or agitated than I usually am
1	I have guilty feelings fairly often		1	I feel more restless and wound-up than usual
2	I feel guilty most of the time about things		2	I am so restless or agitated that its hard to stay still
3	I feel guilty all the time about things		3	I am so restless I have to keep doing something
0	I don’t believe I am being punished for things		0	I don’t get any more tired than I usually do
1	I think that I may be being punished		1	I get tired more easily than I used to
2	I expect to be punished		2	I am too tired to do a lot of things I used to
3	It feels like I am being punished for things		3	I am too tired to do any of what I used to do
0	I do not feel that I am any less worthwhile		0	I feel the same about myself as always
1	I am not as worthwhile a person as I used to feel		1	I have lost confidence in myself
2	I feel more worthless a person compared to others		2	I am disappointed in myself
3	I feel utterly worthless		3	I dislike myself
0	I have the same level of energy as before		0	I don’t have thoughts of killing myself
1	I have less energy than has been usual for me		1	I think about suicide but would never do it
2	I do not have the energy I need to do things		2	I would like to kill myself
3	I have very little energy for anything		3	If I had the opportunity I would kill myself
0	I can concentrate as well as I usually can		0	There is no change in how I feel about sex
1	I am not able to concentrate as well as before		1	I am less interested in sex than before
2	It’s hard to keep my mind focused on anything		2	I am much less interested in sex
3	I find I can’t concentrate on anything at all		3	I have lost all interest in sex
0	I sleep as well as I  usually do		0	I have not noticed any change in my appetite
1	(a) I sleep more than usual (b) I sleep less than usual		1	(a) My appetite is less than usual (b) My appetite is more than usual
2	(a) I sleep a lot more than usual (b) I sleep a lot less than usual		2	(a) My appetite is much less (b) My appetite is much more than usual
3	(a) I sleep most of the day (b) I wake 1-2 hours earlier and can't get back to sleep		3	(a) I have no appetite at all (b) I crave food all the time
0	I am able to make decisions as well as I did before
1	I am unable to make decisions as easily as before			You total score is:
2	I have much greater difficulty making decisions			If your score is:  0 to 13 - depression is minimal 14 to 19 - mild depression  20 to 28 - moderate depression  29 to 63 – severe depression
3	It is hard making any decisions at all now

It is important to see your Doctor, to check out the possibility of other medical conditions that might be involved in your symptoms.