A Paradox of Depression
"Looking good but feeling bad."

[ Awakenings Home ] [ Understanding Depression ] [ Back ] [ Next ]

Can you smile when feeling bad and fool others?

Take a test to measure for the signs of depression.

A curious feature of depression is that it is possible to be depressed and not know it. You may never describe yourself as depressed or even sad. You may have little awareness of sadness, but you may still be depressed.

Many different symptoms make up the syndrome labeled depression, and sadness is but one of them. People often know how to mask their feelings and hide them not only from others but from themselves as well. If you know how to put on a "happy face" when you are feeling down then you might do this. If you can smile while feeling bad then others may think that you are all right. If you are very good at this hiding of emotion then you may also fool yourself. You may mask your depression behind a smile.

Many depressed people make their way to the physician’s office thinking that they are ill only to be told that depression is involved.

Symptoms of Depression

How do you know if you are depressed? What are the symptoms?

The table below lists the major signs of depression. As you see there are quite a variety of them. The presence and degree of these symptoms in your life determines whether or not you are depressed.

How are you doing?

If you think you are depressed it is a good idea to measure the symptoms you have.

Measuring depression is like getting on the scales before you go on a diet. When dieting you should weigh yourself before starting so when you weigh again you can tell if you are making progress. Knowing your initial level of depression is helpful when you begin working to lower it. You can use your initial depression score to track your progress over time.

Take this depression test and see how you are doing. If you score as depressed then you may want to return and test yourself weekly for a while to monitor your progress. As you work on the issues of depression the score should begin to go down as you show signs of improvement.

After taking the test follow the links to continue and learn more.

If you don't want to take the test now then click here to continue.

[ Awakenings Home ] [ Understanding Depression ] [ Back ] [ Next ]