If you’re often in a bad mood - or in denial about mental health - it can be hard to tell the difference. Most everyone goes through bad moods. But when the blues don’t go away, you might wonder if, in fact, you are truly depressed. Because depression has clearly defined symptoms, however, there’s a way to figure out whether you need to seek treatment.


Depression is diagnosed when a person experiences five or more specific symptoms for more than two weeks, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Those symptoms include feelings of sadness and loss of pleasure in activities you once enjoyed, changes in appetite that cause weight loss or gain, sleeping too little or too much, feeling tired all the time, having difficulty concentrating and making decisions, and feeling angry and irritable. People with depression might also have feelings of worthlessness or guilt, unexplained physical pain like headaches or backaches, and frequent thoughts of death or suicide.

Hmm,