What Does Depression Really Feel Like?

[Anonymous]

Sometimes you don't feel anything.

Sometimes they may even forget how to react.

Nothing feels like real

They talk about their lives as if it is a nightmare.

It feels like drowning

Most people say it feels like drowning.

Sometimes they have to act

Sometimes they act as if they are happy.

[MementoMori_]

Seems to me that "hopelessness" is the one word that most closely describes what depression feels like in ordinary feelings that most people can easily understand. It's a kind of all consuming, lonely hopelessness that sometimes leaves you so overwhelmed that you feel numb and disconnected with every aspect of life. It feels like there is no escape.

[MementoMori_]

On the plus side I have never met a dumb depressed person. I think it takes a certain amount of intelligence to be depressed. Dumb people are usually happy. Ignorance is bliss I suppose.

On the other hand, if intelligent people are depressed, and presuming they know things that dumb people don't, what does that tell you about the world? That if you understood it, you would be depressed too? Not good.

[babeeeone]

It's a very numbing feeling

[Rawrzz]

"Nothing feels real." This is dissociatiation that is not commonly present in depressed people. It can exist with depression, but it isn't common: it's not a symptom of depression. It's indicative of a different thing entirely: Dissociative Disorder.

Depression symptoms are namely SIGECAPS.

Sleep disorder (increased or decreased)
Interest deficit (anhedonia)
Guilt (worthlessness, hopelessness, regret)
Energy deficit
Concentration deficit
Appetite disorder (increased or decreased)
Psychomotor retardation or agitation
Suicidality

I really dislike people using the word "depression", as a much better term for non-medical sadness is just... sadness.

I don't really buy into "depression" as a mental illness, but there are certainly varying levels of depression and sadness. I feel like not clarifying it is misleading.. Especially when you include something like disassociation on what "depression" feels like.

[myTake Owner]

ı mean they feel like they are watching their own life -like an observer

[Rawrzz]

Yep. Depersonalization. Disassociation.

[Saoirse_Nua]

For me it was the sense of detachment - I totally isolated myself and felt I existed in my own dimension trying to limit my interaction with the real world - Lots of truth in your take - In a way you find your own way out of it but very often you need to either look for help or accept help and on the flip side people need to try and understand that you are going through a difficult time.

[AnonRom]

This is pretty close though one thing is that the apathy often comes with utter exhaustion like when I went through a few months of depression I went from sleeping 5ish hours a day to 12-13 and would often fall asleep in the middle of things I wouldn't normally fall asleep during.

[TheDeplorableOne]

If you live in more northern states (well it's good advice regardless if northern or not), GET MORE SUN without sunscreen. Vitamin D is absolutely necessary for the producation of serotonin aka the "feel good" neurotransmitter 90% which are found in your gut (ENS -enteric nervous system.)
Also making sure you get adequate omega 3's and maintaining a diverse microbiome (gut health) are absolute essential for optimal mental health that can take a licking and keep on ticking.

[genericname85]

have you ever felt really really sad and thought there is no way out of your current situation? it´s like that but it doesn´t really stop or it comes and goes in waves.

[JenSCDC]

And it doesn't go to 11, it _starts_ at 11.

[Bluemax]

I felt like a person sitting inside my own head watching a movie, not actually living my life.

[j8k322597]

does it feel like you wanna be secluded from everyone except for a select few people, and when anyone else tries to talk to you, you have to force yourself to respond.

[JenSCDC]

Sometimes the only word to describe it is "pain".

[anonman32]

It feels like wanting to die.

[Phoenix98]

It feels like shit.

[Waffles731]

This is spot on.

[thecalmerface]

mental illness doesn't exist.

[Anonymous]

Oh good, another pictograph.

[Anonymous]

yep.