Mental Health: How Do You Know If You Have Depression?

Knowing the symptoms associated with depression is essential in order to diagnose it correctly and start the most appropriate treatment.

According to the World Health Organisation, 5% of adults suffer from depression, which is around 280 million people worldwide. As Cinthya Molina, one of the psychologists at SHA Wellness Clinic explains, ‘Depression is a mental disorder characterised by low mood, chronic sadness and alterations in behaviour, activity, and thinking. The symptoms it presents are very varied, but the most common are anhedonia, which is the inability to enjoy and feel pleasure, physical exhaustion, tiredness and lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances, eating disorders, a constant feeling of guilt, irritability, low self-esteem and, in short, a lack of hope for the future. However, having these feelings for a couple of days or a week does not mean that you are depressed. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association, requires at least six months of such a condition to be considered depression.’

However, more and more people come to Cinthya’s office who, after a few days with a low mood, confess to being depressed. ‘We have become a society that is very intransigent towards suffering and has a very low tolerance for frustration, tending to pathologise everything that happens to us. As soon as we are unwell for two days, we think we are depressed, that we have to go to the doctor and take a pill. We are being taught that we have to be happy and well 24 hours a day and that it is not right to be unwell or to suffer. Yet, we have to understand that in life there are good and bad things, and going through bad times does not mean that we have a disorder,’ adds the expert.

Social networks play a fundamental role in creating this scenario in which we feel that we have to be happy all the time. As Cinthya says, ‘the aim of some social networks, such as Instagram, is for everyone to see and share how beautiful my life is, how wonderful and fantastic I am and the amazing trips I take. In other words, they only show the side we want others to see and the image we want to create of ourselves. However, the reality is that when you’re really enjoying yourself, you don’t think about posting anything on social media and you only do it when you need positive reinforcement. That is why, although Spain is a supposedly cheerful and happy country with many hours of sunshine, it ranks first in Europe in the consumption of psychotropic drugs, doubling the rate of the second.’

The good news is that the tools to get out of the pit of pessimism and bitterness that is depression are within our reach. ‘Most people believe that reality is meaningful and emotionally charged, but the truth is that reality is neutral. In fact, we are co-creators of reality, that is, depending on the glasses we wear, we will see it in one way or another. Depression is not so much about what happens outside, but about how you interpret and manage what happens outside. And this means that the solution to the problem is in your hands because what depends on you can be changed. The only true, authentic, and profound relationship that you will maintain throughout your life is the one you cultivate with yourself. The rest is a game of mirrors where you reflect yourself and screens where you project yourself. That’s why I always recommend trying to be the co-creator of your reality,’ concludes Cinthya.

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