How can you distiguish depression from unhappiness?

Question

I am in a bit of a situation that I don't know how to deal with and its bugging me as I have nobody to talk to about it. I have social anxiety and I see a councillor that my gp referred me to to help me through some of the problems I have had.
I was told I should start taking anti depressants from my gp but I turned them down and I am now refretting it.
My problem is I don't know how to distinguish depression from unhappiness, I feel discontent more or less all of the time and I have issues with self esteem and confidence. I have also started having thoughts that make me cry a lot, I lye in bed crying quite a lot and think about losing people I love. I wake up and I spend most days feeling negatively about things and I am at university which makes it harder as social anxiety puts huge limitations on me.

My real question is, how do I know whether I should take the anti-depressants or not? I don't know if what I am feeling is really depression or just all in my head. I am confused?

refretting was meant to be regretting :) ....sorry

'distinguish'....sorry, very tired!

Answer 1

Sadness is a part of being human, a natural reaction to painful circumstances. All of us will experience sadness at some point in our lives. Depression, however, is a physical illness with many more symptoms than an unhappy mood. The person with clinical depression finds that there is not always a logical reason for his dark feelings. Exhortations from well-meaning friends and family for him to "snap out of it" provide only frustration for he can no more "snap out of it" than the diabetic can will his pancreas to produce more insulin. Sadness is a transient feeling that passes as a person comes to term with his troubles. Depression can linger for weeks, months or even years.

I hope this simple analysis helps you L

Answer 2

about 5 years ago, I started to fall into a really depressive episode. At first I thought it was only because I had a bad break from a relationship but the feelings wouldn't go away even after I got a new girlfriend. It was wrecking my life until a point where it was seriously affecting my work and personal life.

She was very worried but at the same time couldn't understand why I was still sad and thought that I still couldn't let go of my previous relationship. Being the wonderful person that she is, she put aside her feelings and suggested I go for psychiatric evaluation. Many months later and even more anti-depressants, I was not coming close to being better at all.

After doing some research online, I found out the real cause as you described it really makes a lot of sense and purchased this program. The results were simply astonishing. I read this book over three times and put all words in action. Using this method, I've kept my depression at bay ever since. Up to date I'm still living happily with my girlfriend.

Depression Free Method?

Answer 3

I think a more appropriate medication (if you were to consider one) would be an anti-anxiety. Your anxiety is making you cry and your anxiety is making you feel uncomfortable socially, thus putting you into an unhappy state. Depression is feeling extreme sadness without change or ability to raise your level of happiness for days, weeks or even years for seemingly no rational reason. People who are depressed sometimes really don't know why they are depressed and some try to rationalize it and say they are depressed and connect it to something going on in their life. The thing is they ALWAYS have a reason to be depressed... doesn't sound rational, does it? Anxiety will make you fear the loss or death of loved ones or even yourself and this can make you very upset and sad, but the root of the reason you're crying is your thoughts that came from your anxiety. There are relaxation methods, connecting back to the world tactics and other methods such as picturing/imagining you're in your "safe place" that can help you cope with your anxiety in addition to your medication or alone, without medication. I think a big help with anxiety is if you stop to really recognize and rationalize what you are feeling anxiety for... ask yourself questions (What's the worse that could happen? Am I going to die? What am I worrying about? What around me is making me feel threatened? etc etc etc) and being able to recognize the reason your are anxious can help you rationalize and address the real issue or it can help you realize that no imminent danger or threat will come out of the situation.

Answer 4

Depression is something that you can't snap out of, something that just won't go away & isn't an on/off thing. It's emotionally & physically draining. It's extremely hard to function from day to day & even getting up out of bed can be difficult some days
If you have doubts as to whether you need medication or not, maybe you think you can manage without it. If this is the case I would say don't take the medication & take it as a back up only when you feel you can't cope with life. Try other measures first to see if it's just unhappiness, like focussing on positive things. Take little positive steps & enlist the back-up of friends/family if they can. If none of this works then you may need the medication but only take it as a last resort.

Answer 5

hi, sorry to hear of your situation, but snap you sound just like me, Ive suffered social anxiety since i was in my early teens and its a nightmare, very frustrating as it holds you back from doing things you know you can do, work, promotion etc.. anyway the past 2 years Ive had cognitive behavioural therapy which greatly helped as it makes me see situations in a different light, makes me stop "mind reading" other people and stop looking into situations which might not even occur, i have been on citalopram for my general anxiety, i think it would be a good idea to get pills from the doc as it will take the edge off things, it will also help you put some of the things your councillor is going through with you into practise, i don't think theres much difference between depression and unhappiness but depression seems to be a more long term unhappiness, keep your chin up i know how frustrating it is but you will get better. get a kick start and take pills from your doc, might not be the long term answer but as i say it will take the edge off things when you put them into practise.

Answer 6

It is an interesting question and a difficult problem. I have always been aware that many patients who esteemed colleagues labelled depressed and prescribed antidepressants, were not infrequently in my view suffering more from life than pathologically depression. I read a recent learn-ed article suggesting exactly the same problem.

It is impossible to decide without a detailed, often 30-40 minute consultation which is which, so there is no way I would presume to decide which side of the fence you sit on. The Hamilton rating scale can sometimes help, but even then I think there is often a bit of the art of medicine involved in the decision.

http://healthnet.umassmed.edu/mhealth/HAMD.pdf

I sympathise but you really need specialist assessment.

Answer 7

I'm not a Dr. or psychologist, but I think you should call your Dr., the gp and tell them you still aren't feeling well and could you try the medication? I have fought depression for years, I take 2 kinds of medications now and they are working very well right now. The hopelessness you describe sounds like depression, especially not knowing why you're crying. Unhappiness is shorter lived and is usually caused by a certain event, divorce or death, etc.

Answer 8

they are really the same thing in essence.

Depression tends to be if unhappiness feels unbearable and if you feel you have not enough resources to cope, depression is a bit of a bluff for a description as it really can mean many things, if you look it up in the dictionary, it means deflated, flat and loss of spirit, these can all be descriptions of unhappiness, buyt unhappiness tends to last a few hours or days, depression seems to be way more central, its like it rocks your core, knocks you side ways and drops you down, none of these in a good way either.

If you know whats making you feel low, and it feels ok- not that you feel ok, but the problem doesnt feel so terrible you cannot cope, it feels containable and not debilitating and like its taking over your entire life, the chances are its unhappiness.

If you cannot cope, and you cannot see past it, you cannot see it ever ending, and it feels like it cant get much worse, its depression.

Answer 9

the anti-depression is just there to help the brain create a "happydrug" for your body, it makes it a little bit easyer, but my doctor said, the drugs are just 10% of the prosses the other 90% all you, you can go to ur counsellor to talk to about this, and if you are depressed, it is all in your head, the only thing that you can do is get your brain to solve the problems and see the world in a different way,,,

I suffer from depression and social anxiety and plain anxiety, what has helped me alot is my boyfriend and friends that take time to listen and help me with my problems, even thou it sounds stupid in your head then they don't think its stupid, they help you see that you are worth the world to them, and nobody is there to harm you... I still am trying to get the currage to go to the supermarked alone, but still I need someone that I trust with me, I work in a place where my mom is so I feel safe...

you can also send me a e-mail if you want to talk..

with special warm wishes... ice-girl

Answer 10

Well your GP is clearly taking your symptons seriously as he/she has offered anti-depressents and arranged counselling. Although as Dr Frank says one doctor's recommendation may differ from another's. I'm not sure how the old adage - 'ask for a second opinion' works in reality but you could maybe ask to see another GP at your practice or even just go back to your doctor and talk thorugh your concerns about taking anti-depressants if they are not strictly necessary.