It is normal to feel sad, bad or even depressed. But when you feel lonely, hopeless, helpless, worthless for more than 2 days, then you are probably considered to be depressed about something.

Signs of Depression

1. Morning sadness
2. Lack of Energy
3. A feeling of guilt and worthlessness
4. Hard time focusing, making decisions and remembering details
5. Insomnia/too much sleep
6. No interest
7. Irritation
8. Pains/ache
9. Thought of death
10. Weight loss

Features/ Causes of Depression

1. Anxiety distress: Worrying a lot about things that might happen or about losing control
2. Mixed feelings: Both have depression and mania- a period of high energy or talking too much
3. Typical Feature: One can feel good after happy events but feel hungry, need to sleep and sensitive to rejection
4. Psychotic Feature: One believes things are not true

Controlling Depression

1. Stay in touch with friends and family. Ensure you have someone around to talk to whenever you feel down.
2. Be more active. Try to ensure you are breathing, take a walk, exercise, relax your muscles.
3. Face your Fears. This could be a little bit daunting but very brave. Try to face whatever makes you sad or depressed.
4. Take time out. Ensure to distract yourself whenever you feel down. Take a bath, make your favourite meal.
5. Look at the evidence. If you were to give a piece of advice to a friend going through depression, what would it be?
6. Talk about it. Open up to someone you can trust about your problems. A problem shared is the one half solved.
7. Visualize a happy place. Dream more while awake. Consciously close your eyes and picture yourself in a place of comfort-beach, gym, resort, park, restaurant, events…

Depression is real and try to take care of your mental health.