If you believe you might be suffering from depression, please make an appointment to see your familiy physician and/or a psychiatrist.  You may need to be placed on medication for a short or longer period of time to alleviate many of the physical symptoms associated with depression.

          It is also important to treat with a psychologist or psychotherapist.  This is so because psychiatrists are not trained to counsel you.  They are trained to prescribe medication.   You will need a skilled therapist to help you deal with the distorted thinking that accompanies depression.

          Every year, John Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland (a top facility for the treatment of depression), publishes a document called the "White Papers:  Depression and Anxiety".  You can go to their website to order the complete 77 page document at http://johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/bookstore/ .  It is a wonderful overview with update about the current status of what scientists know about depression, anxiety and treating these disorders.  The material printed below may be covered by copyright laws.  The 2007 edition had this to say about the diagnosis of depression:

Symptoms and Diagnosis of Mood Disorders

          Although many mood disorders are readily recognized, it can be difficult to distinguish milder forms of depression or anxiety from the emotional changes that are a part of everyday life.  Unlike most medical disorders, mood disorders cannot be detected by blood and other laboratory tests.

          A doctor must rely on a person's medical history to diagnose a mood disorder.  The American Psychiatric Association has established various classification systems to help doctors make consistent diagnoses of major depression, bipolar disorder, and various forms of anxiety.  The criteria are defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a reference guide used by psychiatrists and psychologists.  The manual is periodicallyy revised to keep up with the latest research; the current edition is referred to as the DSM-IV-TR.

1.     Major Depression

          According to the DSM-IV-TR, a person is suffering from a major depressive episode if he or she experiences items 1 or 2 from the list of symptoms below, along with any four others, continuously for more than two weeks:

               1.   Depressed mood with overwhelming feelings of sadness and grief

               2.   Apathy -- loss of interest and pleasure in activities formerly enjoyed

               3.   Sleep problems -- insomnia, early-morning waking, or oversleeping nearly every day
               4.   Decreased energy or fatigue

               5.   Noticeable changes in appetite and weight (significant weight loss or gain)

               6.   Inability to concentrate or think, or indecisiveness

               7.   Physical symtoms of restlessness or being physically slowed down

               8.   Feelings of guilt, worthless, and helplessness

               9.   Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide, or a suicide attempt.

2.     Dysthymia

           Dysthmia is a chronic form of depression that is milder than major depression.  It is characterized by the presence of depressed mood fr most of the day for more days than not, over a period of at least two years.  It may be intermittent and interspersed with periods of feeling normal, but these periods of improvement last for no more than two months.

          Because the onset of symptoms is insidious, dysthmia often goes unnoticed.  Any because of its chronic nature, the person may come to believe, "I've always been this way."  In addition to depressed mood, symtoms include two or more of the following:

                 1.   Poor appetite or overeating

                 2.   Insomnia or hypersomnia (excessive sleeping)

                 3.   Low energy or fatigue

                 4.   Low self-esteem

                 5.   Poor concentration or difficulty making decisions

                 6.   Feelings of hopelessness.

3.     Atypical Depression

          Atypical depression, despite its name, is not unusual and occurs in 30 -- 40% of depressed patients seen by doctors.  It derives its name from the fact that it is different from typical depression in certain key respects.  For example, sufferes do manage to find pleasure in certain activities at certain times, and, rather than have insomnia and loss of appetite, many people with atypical depression overeat and oversleep.

              Other symptoms include:

              1.   General sadness that can be broken by enjoyment of pleasurable experiences or circumstances

             2.   Strong feelings of rejection

             3.   A sensation of heaviness, especially in the arms

             4.   A strong preference to overeat carbohydrate-rich foods because injection of carbohydrates causes an increase in
                    serotonin in the brain, which can boost mood.

          This disorder is just as debilitating as major depression despite apparent lack of sadness.  People with atypical depression often have shorter but more frequent episodes of depression.

Do You Have Depression?  Take A Simple Test

          Here are some useful links which offer questionnaires/tests/lists of symptoms to assist you in thinking about whether you are suffering from depression:

http://www.depression.com/depression_questionnaire.html

http://www.depressiontreatment.com/understanding.php#symptoms

          These "tests" are not definitive.  They are only designed to give you "some idea" of whether you may be suffering from depression.  They are no substitute for going to your doctor or making an appointment with a psychiatrist.