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r/AskReddit 3 yr. ago

Join
by babygiallo

people who have depression, what

was the first sign that let you know
that you have depression?
Archived post. New comments cannot be
posted and votes cannot be cast.

2.7K 1.8K Share

Sort by: Best 1.8K comments

kanoel5577 • 3 yr. ago

I started to feel numb and detached. Lack of

movitation
3K Reply Share

83 more replies

autumnmcawesome • 3 yr. ago

Realizing that I didn’t care one way or the other. If I

had kids or didn’t. If I stayed in my career path or went
back to school. If I lived or died. I just don’t care.
1.8K Reply Share

44 more replies

livercake • 3 yr. ago

every day feels the same... also, you stop taking care
of yourself. bad food, worse sleep schedule, messy
room, messy hair, messy clothes...

usually eveyone close to you sees it before you do.

1.1K Reply Share

52 more replies

StickSauce • 3 yr. ago

Honestly, you will probably miss the first several signs.

You're rationalizing will explain them away until one
day, without really knowing why, it will snap together
that something is not normal.
278 Reply Share

9 more replies

TetrisCannibal • 3 yr. ago

Talking shit to myself. It was an early sign that I

completely ignored and didn't get treated for for years.

I thought I was just being a successful person. I

wanted to do well in life so I was hard on myself to
keep myself on track. When I didn't live up to the
standards I set for myself I beat myself up for it,
because of course that's what you do. If you don't
have high expectations for yourself then you must be
some sort of soft special snowflake who wants to have
the world slow down for them instead of rising to the
occasion. Right?

It wasn't until my life went to total shit that I had a

therapist tell me to give myself a fucking break
already. What I was doing wasn't helping me and was
hurting my relationships with people and my health.
791 Reply Share

29 more replies

christineyvette • 3 yr. ago

It always starts with me wanting to be alone and losing

interest in things and people around me. Also sleeping
a lot.
393 Reply Share

8 more replies

ethel_stone • 3 yr. ago

I’m bipolar, and that makes me experience both manic

episodes and depression from time to time. So once
when I was in my intermission (neither manic, nor
depressive episode, kinda normal state) I decided to
finally make a check-list of symptoms that could help
me find out that my episode is getting closer so that I
would contact my doctor, start using special meds,
and just prepare my routine to another mood swing.

I know it’s more than just a one sign, but since I’m
constantly getting on and off with my depression there
could be different “first signs” every cycle.

1. Change of sleeping habits. I mean, if I tend to

sleep less or more than usual, or if I’m going to
bed later/earlier than always - that’s a sign that
I’m probably not ok.
2. Change of eating habits and appetite. Same as
the previous one, but with food instead of
sleeping.
3. Overreacting, literally mood swings during the
day. If I tend to cry/laugh/be mad about things
more or less than usual, or if my mood changes
dramatically in a short time - that’s not ok.
4. Sexual desire. Either it disappears or grows
intensively, that’s a reason to look for more
symptoms.
5. Change of self-esteem and self-perception. “I’m
such a bad person”, “No one likes me”, “Why am I
so unlucky all the time”, or the opposite, “I can do
literally anything easily”, “No one and nothing can
stop me from achieving my goals in this life”, “I
am the goddess”, etc.
6. Change of thoughts about my future. I normally
look at my life in a very realistic way, but
sometimes my disorder changes it for me. I can
think that nothing good awaits when I’m
depressed, then during my manic episode I think
that nothing could go wrong in my life.
7. Change of my attitude and relationships with
people. I usually got very bored and tired by
people easily during depressive episodes. Also I
tend to feel kinda aggressive during manic ones.
So yeah, if I had an argument with two or more of
my friends, that’s always the beginning of another
bipolar episode.
8. Feeling like I’m gonna cry but not actually crying.
Sometimes it just feels like my eyes are dry and
empty, like there are no tears, and I’m not capable
of producing them. It works also with the feeling
like I’m gonna throw up. Sometimes I can just feel
sick for days without actually throwing up.
9. Change of my thoughts about money. That’s a
huge thing tbh, and I’m not even that
materialistic. But I’ve noticed that I’m really into
overspending money during manic episodes, and
that’s actually a very popular thing amongst
bipolar people. And also my depression usually
makes me feel like “Nah, I don’t need money at
all, I don’t care about money, I’m not motivated by
them, etc” which is actually not true, cause I live
by myself, and I need to pay rent and feed my
dog, so I do need money.
10. Change of my workflow. Not gonna brag, but I’m
kinda well-organized (yup, I’ve made this whole
damn list of symptoms) and hardworking person.
So when I don’t feel like working, either I’m too
tired or just got distracted all the time - that’s a
bad signal.
11. Change of my feeling about my hobbies. Probably
the most scary state is when I don’t wanna sing
or dance. Oh my, If I didn’t sing at least a very
short line of a song during the day, I’m definitely
dead or extremely depressed.
12. Several “physical” symptoms. I usually feel a bit
dizzy when I’m depressed, sometimes there’s
even a fever. And when I’m in my manic state, my
muscles hurt like if I‘be been training in a gym for
too long.
13. Suicidal (“I wanna die”) and anti-vital (“It would
be ok to not exist”, “I just wanna disappear”, “I
wonder what would happen if I would be gone”)
thoughts. Don’t know if the term “anti-vital” is
right tbh, sorry, I’m not a native English speaker.
But yeah, those thoughts about literally ending
my life or even just “not existing” are, obviously,
very disturbing signals.
14. Change of hygiene routine. That’s kinda easy to
notice. But from my experience that’s also a very
serious symptom that shows off only after a very
long time of ignoring my mental state.
15. Change of my social behavior. For example, if I
wanna spend weeks being alone, not even calling
my friends. Or, the opposite, I can have this
constant desire to party.

I try to pay much of attention to my mental health, so

usually I do things to fix it before it gets worse. So
yeah, I don’t let myself experience more than 3-5
symptoms from this list at once, otherwise it’s too hard
to get back to normal.

Hope it could help you. Also hope you’re all staying ok.
285 Reply Share

44 more replies

Zyon77 • 3 yr. ago

Probably the fact i eat one meal a day and i just feel
tired all the time.

Edit: wtf 756 points damn thx lol (havent been on

reddit long so this is cool)
816 Reply Share

42 more replies

FriedPickle12 • 3 yr. ago

Reading all these comments.

100 Reply Share

6 more replies

SassiestPants • 3 yr. ago

I couldn't remember the feeling of "happy."

I knew I was happy in the past, but I couldn't recall the

feeling.
93 Reply Share

9 more replies

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