We all go through rough patches that leave us feeling sad, frustrated, and overwhelmed. In fact, the phrase “I’m really depressed today,” has become a widely accepted part of everyday vernacular. That said, if you’ve ever spoken the phrase in conversation with a friend, chances are you were referring to a mood rather than depression itself. Moods pass, but mood disorders like depression can last a lifetime — and a combination of therapy, medication, and social support are typically needed to mitigate the symptoms of depression. Depression is one of the most common mental disorders, so chances are someone you know is grappling with the condition. According to a February 2023 poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average rate of depression and anxiety among adults in the US is 32.3 percent. A similar report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2023 found that approximately 280 million people worldwide have depression, but the numbers are likely even higher than that, as many people experiencing symptoms of depression aren’t diagnosed.
If you’re wondering what signs and symptoms of depression to be aware of, you’re not alone. “When we feel disconnected from our fellow humans, our minds and our bodies do not do well,” says Dr. Kate Truitt, LCSW, an applied neuroscientist and author of Keep Breathing: A Psychologist’s Intimate Journey Through Loss, Trauma, and Rediscovering Life. “When our body struggles, our brain struggles; when our brain struggles, our body struggles,” Truitt tells SheKnows. “When somebody is living in a state where they’re perpetually beating themselves up and feeling like they’re not good enough, lovable, belonging, or okay in the world around, that’s such a powerful entry point because that’s the brain struggling to find purpose, worth, and value.”
Truitt explains that, while the symptoms of depression vary depending on the individual, there are several common symptoms that indicate it may be time to seek help for yourself or someone you love. If you observe any combination of these symptoms in a friend or family member, the best course of action is to consult with a medical professional, preferably a mental health specialist, to help manage these symptoms moving forward.
Common Physical Symptoms of Depression
Our physical and mental health are deeply intertwined, and while it may not always be obvious, depression can manifest in myriad forms. Ahead, learn more about the physical symptoms of depression — including interrupted sleep, fluctuations in weight, and digestive issues.
Signs of Depression: Fatigue and Insomnia
Perhaps the catalyst for a majority of symptoms of depression, fatigue is one of the most common — and most overlooked — signs of a mood disorder. “Fatigue is a heaviness that follows us,” says Truitt. “I’ve had a lot of patients describe it as though they’re walking through tar or living under a steel blanket. The movement of everyday life becomes exponentially harder.”
Related story How Hot Is Too Hot for Your Kids to Play Outside? With fatigue, we feel both emotionally and physically tired, which can manifest in the form of headaches, muscle pain, increased inflammation, and insomnia. “Fatigue is one of the sneakiest [symptoms], especially because of the relationship that it tends to have with insomnia and the role of insomnia and suicidal considerations,” says Truitt. “Insomnia is a huge risk factor for the worsening of depression, as well as the onset of agitated depression, which is a combination of both the emotional and the physical side.”
For many, the solution to these feelings of exhaustion is to sleep it off. If you’ve ever tried to get some rest during a period of depression, though, you know that laying your head on a pillow is basically an alarm clock that sends your brain into a spiral of ruminating thoughts. Because depression sends the brain into a hyper-processing state, the moment we give ourselves time to rest, it flickers rapidly through feelings of guilt, failure, and sadness that result in poor sleep or a lack of sleep. “The next day, they wake up and they’re even more fatigued, which then feeds into so many of the other physical symptoms,” adds Truitt.
Signs of Depression: Increased or Decreased Appetite
“A lot of times when we’re fatigued, we don’t want to eat or we’ll overeat because we’re compensating,” says Truitt. “We’ll hyper-rely on caffeine for a bump, which then worsens the feelings of restlessness, if somebody has agitated depression, or increases the presence of anxiety.” These changes in appetite may also lead to rapid and extreme weight loss or weight gain, which can result in a variety of additional symptoms, such as changes to one’s metabolism, muscles, digestive system, and sleep cycle.
Signs of Depression: Low Sex Drive
Another physical symptom of depression is a low libido or decreased sex drive. With depression, it’s common for people to lose interest in activities they typically enjoy, and this includes sex and physical intimacy. Even though someone may want to maintain a healthy sex life, their fatigue levels may be too high or their interest levels may be too low for them to even consider sex or physical pleasure because the chemicals in the brain are out of balance. While this may cause strain in the person’s relationships, it’s important to acknowledge that lack of sexual desire is a common symptom of depression and can be addressed with the help of a medical professional.
Common Mental and Emotional Symptoms of Depression
Most common symptoms of depression are psychological and all-encompassing; they impact every area of a person’s life and are intertwined in such a way that it’s often difficult to differentiate between them. At times, these symptoms can become so formidable that it’s difficult for a person with depression to remember what they felt like before they entered a depressive state. Ahead, see what experts had to say about some of the mental and emotional symptoms of depression.
Signs of Depression: Agitation
While depression is most often associated with low mood and a lack of energy, some forms of depression go hand-in-hand with intense feelings of emotional agitation; this is known as agitated depression. “[With agitated depression], the depression is also paired with a very severe sense of agitation or irritability,” Truitt continues. “When somebody has agitated depression, they’re more likely to experience suicidal considerations. They’re also more likely to experience deep feelings of loneliness and isolation because their social relationships are disrupted by the intensity of their agitation and their irritability. They’re living in a space of physical hypo-arousal and emotional hyper-arousal.”
As a result, even the smallest stressor can be overwhelming for those with agitated depression. “The tiniest little thing can create a reaction of agitation or irritability, even anger and, in severe cases, rage because their system simply doesn’t have the bandwidth it needs to process the sensory experience of day-to-day life on top of all the daily symptoms of depression,” says Truitt.
Signs of Depression: Anxiety
Whether you’ve experienced a mood disorder yourself or not, you’ve likely heard that depression and anxiety often coexist. This is partially because the symptoms of anxiety disorder and depression disorder overlap so heavily. Feeling out of control, irritable, frustrated, angry, restless, panicked, guilty, or physically ill are common symptoms of people with depression and anxiety. At times, though, the symptoms of these conditions can be at odds with one another —think, your anxiety telling you that you need to work twice as hard as you have been to meet your goals while your depression removes all motivation to work, as well as the physical and mental ability to work. On the flip side, they can also feed into one another in ways that may have a more profound negative effect on a person’s well-being.
Signs of Depression: Isolation and Lack of Enjoyment
With depression, the hippocampus atrophies and becomes less responsive, as well as less able to call upon positive memories, says Truitt. This, paired with hyperactivity in the amygdala, significantly impairs a person’s ability to make decisions, concentrate, access past memories, and acknowledge potential positive outcomes of their decisions. In this way, the brain allows negativity bias to take over and spin fear-based, anxiety-driven stories about the world around them. This can lead to a lack of enjoyment, even around activities a person typically finds pleasurable, and…
