Learn to recognize early indicators and seek support for mental health issues today
Do you feel down all the time? Are you losing interest in life? Don’t ignore these symptoms. These are warning signs that indicate you have depression. Your mental health needs special care just like your physical health. You should recognize the symptoms in their early stages. This will help you get cured before it's too late.
Our primary care physician, Dr. Jahanara Reza, will discuss the the symptoms of depression. You can identify whether you have this condition or not. You can seek medical help if you have this illness. Start your treatment to ensure the wellness of your mental health.
Understanding Depression
Your physical injuries can be seen but mental illnesses often remain hidden. Many of you also ignore the necessity of caring for your mental health. This can be your biggest mistake. Depression is a serious mental health disorder. It is long term illness. It can negatively impact on your quality of life. You can develop this condition at any point in your life. It does not matter what is your age, gender or background. This condition starts with affecting your mood. But with time it can create suicidal thoughts. It can make you take your own life.
Recognize the Signs of Depression
We will discuss some common signs of depression. You must seek medical help if you have these symptoms for a long time.
Continuous Sadness or Low Mood
It is normal to feel sad, empty, or hopeless. You may feel low due to your circumstances or terrible experiences in life. This emotion is temporary. You feel it for a short time. However, if you constantly feel low for more than two weeks then it can be your warning sign. You may feel hopeless and your perspective on life can be clouded. You may not find ways to bring yourself out of your despair.
Loss of Interest or Pleasure
Have you lost interest in activities that once made you happy? You should do a depression assessment at a clinic if you have this condition almost every time. This loss of interest or not feeling pleasure in activities is anhedonia. You won’t feel interested in your hobbies, self care or socializing with others. You will make yourself isolated and disconnected from your family and friends. This feeling of loneliness will increase your depression level.
Changes in Appetite or Weight
Depression will bring noticeable changes to your appetite. It affects your eating habits as well as weight. Some of you may lose interest in food. You may not feel like eating even your favorite meals. This will make you lose a lot of weight. However, some of your appetites may increase. You will begin to find comfort in food. This depression eating can make you obese. So you can see that this condition affects both your mental and physical wellness.
Sleep Disturbances
Problems in your sleeping routines can give you warnings about depression. Some of you may develop insomnia. You will find it difficult to fall asleep throughout the night. You may become forgetful or face difficulty in concentrating. Sometimes you may struggle with decision making. Depression can also make you oversleep. You will feel sleepy after waking up from long sleep hours. You will experience brain fog and difficulty doing daily activities. You have the chance of developing chronic diseases if you have this sleep disturbance for a long time.
Fatigue or Lack of Energy
You will feel tired after getting enough rest and sleep. This lack of energy will make you exhausted from doing simple tasks. You will feel frustrated with your daily responsibilities. It will be difficult for you to attend classes, office or other personal work.
Feelings of Excessive Guilt
Depression affects your self esteem. You will constantly criticize yourself in your mind. This will always make you feel worthless. You may overthink a lot and feel guilty for minor issues that happened in the past. This will create the negative self image and make you hate yourself.
Difficulty in Concentrating
Depression impacts your cognitive abilities negatively. You will have trouble focusing on your work or studies. This mental fog affects your productivity. You can’t remember things properly. You lose the ability to make decisions as well. Your mental state becomes foggy. For this reason, your stress levels increase and you become more frustrated.
Physical Symptoms
You can also identify depression from your physical symptoms. You may have aches and pains in different body parts for unexplained reasons. You may also have digestive issues. However, only these symptoms can be signs of other medical conditions too. So you can keep these signs into consideration for depression symptoms. You should not overlook these signs especially when you experience other symptoms.
Thoughts of Death or Suicide
Depression can be a life threatening illness for you. You can have suicidal thoughts when your depression condition progresses to advanced levels. You will not find peace in anything you do. Nothing will make you feel happy. You will lose interest in life. You will begin to wish not to wake up from sleep. The constant thoughts of death may eventually lead you to attempt suicide.
Do you have one or more of the symptoms mentioned above? You should get medical help from primary care immediately.
Get Help from Jahanara Reza MD PC
Jahanara Reza MD PC is offering the best depression treatment in Washingtonville, New York. We conduct comprehensive physical and mental health checkups to identify the real reasons behind your symptoms. We provide you with medications and keep you under constant monitoring. We evaluate your progress in the follow up appointments and make adjustments to our treatment plan if necessary. We also refer you to specialists in case you need advanced diagnosis and treatment. We are currently accepting patients.
Do you need an urgent consultation? We allow walk in appointments for your convenience. Book your appointment today to get personalized care for depression management.
FAQs
Can depression be cured?
Depression is a curable condition. You can see significant improvement if you continue our treatment and follow up care. You can see fast noticeable changes in early stage depression. And you may need long term treatment in cases of advanced level depression.
What are the common treatments for depression?
Depression can be managed through multiple treatment approaches. We prescribe medicine and recommend lifestyle changes. Psychotherapy is another effective treatment option. We sometimes suggest a combination of these treatments depending on your mental condition.
Are there any side effects of antidepressant medications?
Antidepressants show some side effects. These side effects are different depending on the medication. You can feel nausea, dizziness or insomnia. Also, you can either gain or lose weight. Some medicines can cause sexual dysfunction too. You advise you to share with us any noticeable changes in your body after starting your medication. We will assess your symptoms and provide proper interventions to solve the issues.
