Are you familiar with…
- Feeling sad nearly every day
- Feelings of hopelessness or lack of worth
- Loss of energy
- Lack of interest in activities that used to be pleasurable
- Sleeping too little or too much
- Feeling like this might never change
This is what depression can look like.
Let me start with an important distinction. We’re not saying that you shouldn’t be sad sometimes, especially if difficult things are happening in your life. But that’s different from depression, which makes it so much harder to handle life’s difficult moments, and can stop you from enjoying life’s easy ones.
Depression is a lot more prevalent than you might think. In the U.S., a 2017 study estimated that 17.3 million adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode (lasting more than two weeks) over the course of the year.
Here’s the first piece of good news I have for you:
You’re already ahead of the game, just by reading these words.
You’ve taken the step of asking and researching about what you might do to overcome your depression.