57 Signs You (Or Somebody You Know) May Be Depressed

Estimated Reading Time: 22 minutes

There are many signs that you, or somebody you know, may be depressed.

Some people manage to hide it very well, while with others the clues may be more obvious.

This article lists 57 symptoms, habits, and behaviours that may indicate depression.

Not all depressed people will exhibit all of these signs, and there may be other symptoms that are not on this list.

Generally speaking, however, the more items in this article you can check off, the more likely it is that depression is present.

Before we start, remember that this information does not replace the need for professional medical diagnosis and treatment.

You’ll notice that some of these signs have a red flag icon () next to them. These are things you should really look out for because they can often be the most significant indicators that you’re heading for (or are already on the slippery slope down to) depression.

And finally, this list is in alphabetical order, because I didn’t want to give the impression that any one symptom is more important than any other.

Acid Reflux

Acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and gastritis are conditions where your stomach makes too much acid, causing it to rise up into your throat. It can also cause stomach ulcers.

While this can be the result of physical problems (e.g. a malfunctioning epiglottis), it can also be caused by anxiety and stress.

It is common knowledge that ulcers and other digestive problems can be caused by stress and depression, but it is less well known that constant belching (and passing gas) can also be signs that your body is under extreme stress.

Aversion To Downtime

People with depression can behave in ways that are the exact opposite of what you’d expect.

For example, most adults look forward to relaxing, with nothing to do.

But for those who are depressed, this can be a nightmare – because with nothing else to do, their minds, and all the negative thoughts that are hard to suppress, come to the forefront.

This is why some people with depression simply won’t slow down and won’t stop doing something. This affects men more than women, according to some studies, but the idea is that the more active you are (e.g. gardening, working on the car, household DIY projects), the less time you have for those negative thoughts to take over.

This aversion to downtime can also manifest itself via artistic activities, such as dancing, singing, playing a musical instrument, writing, drawing, performing on stage (e.g. acting, stand-up comedy, magic), for the same reasons – to keep their mind occupied.

Being Habit-Driven

Most of us have our routines, either because we know that is the efficient way to get things done, or because we just feel comfortable doing things that way (maybe because they are learned habits from our parents).

But if you start freaking out at any minor disruption to your routines or habits, to the point where this is preventing you from living your normal life, then you may have something else going on – like depression.

Boredom And Lack Of Interest In Your Favourite Activities

When you have an activity that you absolutely love doing, something about which you are truly passionate, and you suddenly lose all interest in doing it, then that is a massive red flag!

In fact, there’s even a name for it: anhedonia.

So if nothing seems like fun any longer, or you can’t decide which of several activities to do because none of them appeal to you, then you may have uncovered one of the hidden signs of depression.

Remember though that there may, of course, be genuine reasons for this – perhaps you have an important exam to study for, or you’re preparing for a big meeting at work.

Carelessness

This can take two forms – not caring about yourself or your well-being, and not taking care when you do other activities (e.g. you may break more plates than usual when washing the dishes).

Change In Eating Habits

This can go either way – for some people, they simply lose all of their appetite and end up losing weight (noticeably so), while for others, they cannot stop eating, and end up gaining weight.

There may also be other recognized eating disorders that are associated with anxiety and depression, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

When taken to extremes, all of these can be very dangerous – either because you’re no longer ingesting the nutrients your body needs to survive, or because you’re eating too many “comfort” foods, to make you feel “better”, which are usually not the healthiest things to eat.

When I was severely depressed, I could easily go for two or three days without eating, and it didn’t bother me in the slightest.

But one reason why you don’t eat when you should could be that you’re just too exhausted (physically and/or mentally), and you just can’t be bothered to expend the necessary energy to go and make or purchase food.

Chronic Apologies And Excuses

When you’re depressed, you may find you’re making all sorts of excuses (often ridiculous ones when you stop and think about them) as to why you cannot attend social occasions.

For introverts who often decline invitations like this, it may not be such an obvious sign of depression, but those who typically jump at the chance to go out and have fun, it’s more of a clear sign that something is wrong.

Constantly Talking About Their Trauma

Often, people with depression hide their problems really well, especially around those they don’t know so well, or don’t trust.

However, if they’re with people who are close to them, they may constantly twist whatever anybody else says into being about them and their problems.

Note that this does not mean you should advise them to see a psychiatrist – all they often want or need is for somebody to listen to them. Remember, they may have been bottling their issues up for years before they finally opened up to somebody they can trust.

Digestive Issues

This too can go either way – constipation or diarrhoea.

More and more research is uncovering a definite two-way link between the gut and mental health: gut problems can affect your mood and mental state, while mental problems can cause physical issues, including in your stomach and intestines.

For example, one study concluded that around one third of people who suffered constipation were also seriously depressed.

In my case, the slightest upset has always gone to my stomach, resulting in loose bowels, and this was a lot worse when I was depressed.

Dropping Grades And Skipping Class

This one is of particular interest to parents, because many children, especially teenagers, will not be willing to discuss any problems, especially mental ones, with you.

Two common signs that something may be wrong (e.g. depression) are grades that are falling, or playing truant.

It’s worth bearing in mind too that they may turn to drugs (e.g. mariijuana) when life is tough for them.

None of this means your children have “gone bad” – it is possible they are going through hard times at school (e.g. maybe they’re being bullied, or they’ve been rejected by their crush).

Emphasis On Accomplishments

One of the problems with depression is that your internal sense of self-worth is suppressed.

The result of this can often be that you look for external sources of approval and gratification, so any accomplishment, however small, can be used for validation.

In some ways, this can be good as a temporary crutch – but ultimately, if you are to overcome your depression, you need to regain your self-esteem without relying on external triggers.

Excessive Masturbation

It is well-known that masturbating can be a great way to relieve stress – but when you’re depressed, this is often taken to extremes.

If you find yourself masturbating multiple times a day, to the point where you end up feeling sore and dry, then you may need to think about whether depression is driving this behaviour.

Exhaustion And Fatigue

This is more than just an unwillingness to get out of bed in the morning because you’re feeling tired – it is often something you feel throughout the day, like a permanent sense of having zero energy where you don’t feel able to do anything, or even think.

According to Maurizio Fava, M.D., “Fatigue is one of the identified symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD).”

It can take three forms, and you will often experience all three when you are depressed:

1. Physical, where your entire body can feel exhausted.
2. Cognitive, where your mind is too tired to think, for example, or you cannot easily find the right words.
3. Emotional, which is when the apathy and boredom set in.

Extreme Feelings Of Nostalgia

I was asked just the other day whether nostalgia is a symptom of depression, and this is what I told them.

If you occasionally reminisce about how you remember something from your childhood or past being so much better than it is now (e.g. the flavour of foods, or music), then I don’t see anything to worry about. I’m pretty sure almost everybody does this at some stage.

But if you’re living in the past almost constantly, then that could be symptomatic of something potentially serious, which could include depression.

It’s easy to see why this may be comforting – if your nostalgic thoughts take you back to your childhood, then for many people, that was a time where you felt safe and loved, and you didn’t have to worry about very much in life (e.g. finding and holding down a job, paying bills, developing relationships, being a parent).

But living in the past all of the time is not a healthy place to be – you need to learn how to cope with the present if you are to function in society.

Extreme Mood Swings

If you find yourself switching moods in an instant (e.g. happy to sad, or sad to angry), then you may be depressed.

These mood swings can come without warning, and for no apparent reason.

Fear Of Being Abandoned

While depressed people often eschew company, they still need to feel that somebody else cares for and loves them.

I cannot speak for everybody, of course, but when I was severely depressed, I was able to recognize that I wasn’t always the best person to be around.

However, if you’re already feeling down, it can be a lonely feeling indeed, so the fear or being abandoned by the few people that you think do care of you can be paralyzing.

Feeling As Though You’re A Burden

This is the primary reason why I bottled up my problems for many years – even though I had a few close friends who deep down I knew would listen to me, without judging, I didn’t open up to them because I knew that everybody is dealing with something in their lives, and I didn’t want to burden them with my problems.

People with depression can also feel as though they’re high-maintenance, whether that’s true or not, hence the feelings of being a burden – which in turn encourages feelings of guilt.

Feeling Guilty

“Inappropriate and excessive guilt” is a recognized symptom of depression, according to the American Psychological Association (APA).

This guilt could be caused by something they did do, but which they think they did badly, or by something they didn’t do, but which they feel they should have done.

The guilt is, therefore, often irrational, because it probably wasn’t their fault at all.

Feeling Like You’re Failing At Work

Even before I was diagnosed by a psychiatrist, I knew my performance at work had tanked. Although most of depression was the result of domestic issues, some of it had also been caused by a bad experience with somebody at work.

The quantity of work I produced was much lower than I was used to, and the quality was worse too.

Even when I was internally head-hunted by a different manager – the best one I ever worked for – the damage had been done, and I felt like I let him and his team down.

These feelings were even stronger when I finally opened up to the team about my problems, and ended up taking several months off work because of stress.

I’m pretty sure these feelings are common, and they’re hard to brush aside because, for me at least, I recognized that I was indeed failing. But even if that weren’t the case, when you’re suffering from depression, you might still feel like you’re coming up short.

Feeling Trapped

This, for me, was tied to feelings of hopelessness, like there was just no way out of my situation. (This wasn’t true, but my depression was blinding me to options I was ignoring.)

Flushing

Flushing is similar to blushing, i.e. your face turns bright red, usually because of embarrassment), but the causes are different.

Flushing is not caused by embarrassment but by hormones that are excreted during times of stress – in other words, it’s your body’s way of saying it feels overloaded.

As with many of the symptoms listed here, depression and stress are not the only causes of flushing. There are some medical issues, including lupus, that can result in flushing.

Food Not Tasting Right

This one may be a bit more uncommon than some of the other symptoms, but there are those who report that, when depressed, their food can taste bland (or like cardboard, although I’m not sure how you’d know what cardboard tastes like), or just “off” (as in, not normal, rather than being bad or rotten).

Forced Cheer

We all put on a fake smile from time to time, but if you’re forcing yourself to look happy when you’re not on a regular basis, then you may be depressed (or anxious or stressed).

Forgetting Everything / Memory Problems

This can include having trouble remembering information that you already know (e.g. facts, names), jobs that you need to do (e.g. shopping lists, appointments), as well as not being able to store new information.

The latter problem was the larger one for me, but as with most things, different people are affected in different ways.

This can also be part of a broader issue that is commonly referred to as brain fog.

Remember that the brain, while representing only 3% of your total body weight, consumes up to 25% of the energy you get from your food. And if you’re no longer eating right (because of your depression), your brain may not be getting the necessary nutrients to enable it to function optimally; alternatively, if your body is diverting all of the energy your brain requires, other parts of your body may be suffering, hence fatigue.

Hair Pulling

Hair pulling (technically called trichotillomania) can be another hidden sign of depression.

This usually involves pulling the hair on your head, but some people pull their eyebrows or eyelashes, for example.

Happy Face

If you notice yourself smiling even though something really bad just happened to you, then you may be in a state of denial, which means you may be depressed and are trying to cover it up.

Headaches And Migraines

We’re probably all familiar with the term “tension headache” (which often causes pain in the area around the temples), and it’s all for good reason – tension and stress do go together.

If you’re having a lot more headaches (or migraines) than usual, and perhaps you find them harder to shift, then you may have a mental health issue such as depression.

Heart Palpitations

Technically known as premature ventricular contractions, these can feel like your heart is speeding up uncontrollably, although it is usually your heart doing an extra beat.

While they can be caused by stress, they are also frequently associated with a genuine, physical heart problem – so make sure you see a doctor so you can find out the true cause and deal with it appropriately.

Hygiene Issues

I talked earlier about carelessness, and one way this manifests itself is in a lack of attention to personal hygiene (e.g. not bathing or showering as often, not brushing your teeth, not wearing deodorant, not brushing your hair or having it cut when it needs it, not changing your clothes as often as you should).

You may even try to justify this because of your aversion to social occasions – in other words, “If I’m not going out to meet people, I don’t need to worry about how I look.”

Hypersensitivity To Sound

Any type of hypersensitivity can be the result of higher levels than usual of hormones such as cortisol.

One common result is being extra-sensitive to sounds, especially certain sounds. (This is sometimes known as misophonia – literally, a hatred of sounds.)

It might be some or all music, people who chew loudly, the noise of children playing, or any number of other things.

For me, when I was really depressed, it was the sound of people crunching on hard candies, as well as being in the presence of lots of people where it was impossible for me to distinguish individual sounds – it just hit me like a wall of random noise, which was disorienting and which is something that some people with ASD also experience.

Impulsiveness

Being impulsive can be another sign of depression.

Not only is your brain less able to objectively evaluate the pros and cons of buying or doing something, as you usually would, but buying on impulse can be seen as your looking for a quick fix (aka instant gratification) to take your mind off your issues.

Inability To Concentrate And Focus

With your brain not functioning at its best, then being unable to focus and concentrate is a not altogether unexpected side-effect of depression.

This has always been an issue for me (maybe I have some degree of ADD), but when I was going through my depression, it was noticeably worse.

Unfortunately, this inability to concentrate can sometimes be misdiagnosed as ADHD, when really it’s a sign of depression.

Increased Sweating

Medically known as hyperhidrosis, excessive sweating can be the result of a physical problem (e.g. a reaction to prescription drugs, or hormones), but it can also indicate depression.

When you’re stressed, your body’s “freeze, flight, or fight” mode goes into overdrive, your adrenaline levels shoot through the roof, and that can cause your palms to sweat (to cool them down), sometimes uncontrollably.

Irritability

I’ve already talked about mood swings, and being irritable is just another facet of that.

You may be having a perfectly normal conversation, or watching a movie on TV, and then out of the blue, you feel incredibly irritated, often for no good reason.

This could even result in your going off the rails, throwing a temper tantrum, mistreating staff, or blowing things out of all proportion.

It’s actually an early indicator of depression – which is often described as anger turned inward.

With depression, it can be caused by the constant feelings of self-doubt, the worry that whatever you do will go wrong, and the increasing knowledge that something isn’t right and you don’t know what to do about it.

Looking For Meaning In Life

When you’re depressed, you can feel like you’re worthless and that you have no purpose in life.

So a search for meaning, sometimes referred to as an existential crisis, is often seen as a symptom of depression.

Many people will have moments in their lives when they search for their purpose, but fixating on it is not normal, which is why it’s associated with mental health issues.

Some people find purpose in religion, others in doing charity work, and some muddle along through life without ever working out what purpose their life serves, if any.

The truth is, you create your own meaning in life, but this realization can take a (good) while to occur. The good news is that, once you find that purpose, you can become one of the most driven people you’ll ever know.

Loss Of Motivation

People with depression are usually lacking in motivation – to do anything.

That can include getting up, going to work, doing hobbies you enjoy, dating, calling your friends or family, and looking after yourself.

You may even recognize that your life isn’t going the way you want it to, but you just don’t have the energy (mental or physical) to do anything about it.

Loss Of Interest In Sex

Although partly explained by the fatigue and exhaustion I mentioned above, the loss of libido goes deeper than that.

Likely explanations include fear of failure (aka performance issues), difficulty trusting people, an aversion to being with others in general, and lack of motivation.

Messy Room

Coupled with the lack of motivation, low energy, and inattention to personal hygiene, not tidying and cleaning up after themselves is another potential sign of depression.

More Socially Awkward Than Usual

When you are forced to interact with other people, you will, as I said previously, try to fake being happy – and normal. And all of this can result in your behaviour being extremely awkward.

Negative Thoughts

We all have these from time to time, but when negative thoughts take over your brain and won’t go away, then it’s highly likely you’re depressed.

These negative thoughts can include emptiness, hopelessness, pessimism, sadness, and worthlessness.

Numbness

By numbness, this can mean either emotional numbness (e.g. not reacting to events) as well as physical numbness (e.g. not reacting to painful stimuli).

Paranoia

If you start thinking that the entire world has got it in for you, then this paranoia can be a common sign of depression.

Perfectionism

Being a perfectionist sounds like a good thing, but it can be a real burden.

For starters, nothing is ever good enough for you, and if it’s not good enough for you, then you feel it won’t be good enough for anybody else.

Secondly, this can result in your never completing anything because you realize it will never be perfect.

And you can then use that as an excuse not to even start a project or activity.

In addition, you can end up blowing tiny mistakes completely out of proportion – and that can send you into an uncontrollable rage.

(The trick, which has taken me most of my life to accept, is to recognize when good enough is good enough.)

Pessimism

It seems that depressed people are often intelligent, which means they overthink things.

And this leads them to expect the worst and come up with all manner of possible problems – for no good reason.

Which, in turn, means they don’t start anything because their pessimism assumes it will end badly no matter what they do.

Procrastination

I have been a life-long procrastinator, and even after decades, I’m only marginally better than I used to be.

I can no longer blame depression for this, but I do recall that I was even worse during my depressed period.

You can always find (or create) an excuse to put something off until later, partly because of the lack of motivation, partly because you become adept at creating excuses, and partly because you feel exhausted to start with.

Even doing things that you would usually find fun feel like a chore – and nobody enjoys doing chores (even though you know that once the chore is done, you will feel better).

Psoriasis / Rashes

All manner of skin problems, including rashes, eczema, hives, psoriasis, and rosacea, can be the result of all manner of causes.

And those causes can be stress, anxiety, and depression.

For example, one study showed that over 60% of people with psoriasis (a chronic skin condition characterized by patches of red-silver scaly skin that can be small or cover your entire body) also showed signs of depression.

Note though, as discussed previously, physical issues can cause mental problems, and vice versa.

Psychogenic Itch

A psychogenic itch is the constant need to pick at your skin (sometimes because it feels as though bugs are crawling all over your body, even when nothing is there), and it can occur with any mental health disorder, including depression.

Resisting Help

People who are depressed undoubtedly need some form of help, but, perhaps bizarrely, they often will go out of their way to avoid being helped.

Sometimes this is because they don’t feel like they deserve to be helped, and sometimes it’s their unpredictable mood swings taking over.

I have experienced this first hand: being shunned (and verbally abused) when you’re trying to help somebody you care about is a horrible feeling.

Rumination

When you’re depressed, you spend an inordinate amount of time living inside your head (aka rumination) – listening to your negative self-talk, remembering mistakes you have made, often years ago, recalling arguments you had with people, reliving your failures, as well as thinking about all of the things that might go wrong today or tomorrow.

You may also focus on all of the doom and gloom in the world, which is not easy to avoid unless you shut out the media completely.

Feeling sad about bad things happening does not per se indicate depression, but if you suddenly shift your focus to this bleak inner world, it is one of the many possible signs.

Seizures / Tics

As with many of these symptoms, there are genuine physical reasons why people have seizures.

One of those causes, albeit somewhat rare, is depression and stress – the brain is just overloaded and the seizure is a physical manifestation of that stress.

Tics, which are usually smaller spasmodic movements of the head, are a less severe and more localized form of seizures, but they too can be caused by depression.

It was actually my inability to control my tics, when I was depressed, that caused one of my co-workers to ask if anything was wrong, and that was when I made the decision to finally tell her and my manager what the problem was.

I’m not sure to this day whether I was genuinely unable to control the tics that day, something I’d managed to do very well until that occasion, or whether, maybe subconsciously, I decided not to hide the tics in the hope that somebody would notice, thus forcing me to open up.

Either way, it was one of two key developments during my depression that I credit for my recovery.

Speaking In Absolutes

If you are the sort of person who usually sees the world as shades of grey, and you start to use black and white terms (e.g. always, everybody, never), it may be a symptom of oncoming depression.

Again, I witnessed this myself, and didn’t connect the dots at first, but once I became aware of it, it was increasingly hard to ignore.

This seems especially telling because, as I said previously, depression often affects intelligent people, who are usually the type who do not see the world as black and white.

Struggling To Get Out Of Bed

This is a very specific example of the combination of fatigue and a lack of motivation.

It doesn’t mean you are still sleepy (although this could be true too) – it just means that you have absolutely zero desire to get out of bed and do anything.

Substance Abuse

This is a big one for me – not that I took this approach, but because the person who was closest to me at the time chose substance abuse as her “solution”.

In that case, it was alcohol, but it could be any number of substances, including caffeine, tobacco, illegal drugs, and prescription drugs (e.g. opioid painkillers).

Some people become addicted to other things, such as food or sex (although as I said above, some people with depression lose all interest in sex).

Something you’ll maybe hear from somebody who is depressed and abusing alcohol, is that they would rather live their life in a drunken stupor than face reality.

And that’s pretty much it – they are seeking an escape from life.

Deep down, I suspect that most know it’s only a short-term solution at best, because at some stage the effects of their chosen substance will wear off – so they have to take more. Even worse, their bodies become increasingly tolerant of that substance, so they end up taking more and more of it.

Suicidal Thoughts

It was when I seriously started researching ways to kill myself (that involved minimal pain and almost zero chance of failure) that I realized just how depressed I was.

Of course, not all depressed people feel suicidal – I think, for me at least, it was a sign of how hopeless I thought my situation was.

These thoughts can also be triggered by your feeling that nobody would miss you (which is rarely the case), and even that the world would be better off without you (which is also likely not true).

It’s one thing to wonder what it would be like if you were no longer there, but when you dwell on the possibility for days, weeks, or even months, then that is not normal, by any stretch of the imagination.

If you notice yourself having suicidal thoughts, that should be a real wake-up call that you need help – either from a friend or a professional.

And if you notice suicidal tendencies in somebody else, it may be time to sound the alarm, either to them or somebody close to them.

Trust Issues

This can be coupled with a fear of abandonment (something that may be associated with childhood experiences), but when you’re depressed, you can find it hard to trust anybody.

Don’t forget too that parents lie to their children all the time. Often, it’s stuff that can be trivial in the grand scheme of things (e.g. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy), but sometimes those lies can be much larger issues. You may not realize it at the time, because most of us grow up assuming our parents know everything and are honest with us, but when that realization does come, it can, with some people, and depending on the lie(s), cause serious repercussions.

So, you’re depressed, you will question people’s motives, wonder if they’re really your friend, and because of your lack of self-worth and fear of failure, you will find it hard to trust even yourself.

And if you cannot trust yourself, who can you trust?

Unusual Sleeping Habits

Like with your eating habits, your sleeping habits can change in all sorts of ways.

For example:

• You may have trouble getting to sleep.
• You may have trouble staying asleep throughout the night.
• You may way up earlier than normal.
• You may have trouble waking up at all.
• You may have disturbing dreams or nightmares.
• You may experience night terrors or sleep paralysis.
• You may start sleep-walking.
• You may stop dreaming completely (which is definitely a major red flag).

And, of course, any or all of these problems can come and go at random – one night you may not get to sleep for hours, and the next night you fall asleep without any problem, but cannot stay asleep all night.

Again, there may be medical reasons for your unusual sleep patterns (e.g. sleep apnoea), but taken together with everything else, disrupted sleep can be a sign of mental health issues.

Weird Aches And Pains

Apparently, roughly 66% of people with depression also report unexplained physical pains.

This can be a problem, because if you go to your doctor complaining of something that appears physical in nature, they will often not think about mental health problems being the cause.

In addition, the exact mechanism by which depression can cause physical pain in various parts of your body is not well understood, yet at least.

One theory, though, is that the physical pain is somehow caused by trying to suppress and deny your emotions.

Conclusion

Well, that turned out to be a much longer list than I was anticipating, and it’s probably not even exhaustive.

So, how can you use this list, especially for yourself?

I would suggest working my way through the entire list, checking off each symptom that you feel applies to you – and the more symptoms you check off, the more likely it is that you’re suffering from depression.

Remember: The above is for informational purposes and definitely not a substitute for medical diagnosis, treatment, or professional medical advice.

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. Find A Counsellor (USA Only)