How do you know if you are depressed or just sad?

Question

What's the difference? I'm in law school and absolutely hate it. I don't even look forward to waking up in the morning. How do I know if I'm depressed, rather than just sad that I'm stuck in this situation right now?

Answer 1

When you are depressed, you cry (hard) frequently, the smallest things get on your nerves, the smallest things worry you, it's hard to concentrate on anything, you feel unhappy all the time, you feel like a failure.

You feel guilty all the time, even if you haven't done anything, and you feel like you deserve to be punished, your future seems hopeless, you have difficulty making decisions, you have lost interests in things that you used to be important to you.

You feel like any joy or happiness has been drained out of your life, you spend time thinking of how you might kill yourself, you have a strange sleeping cycle, you are agitated all the time and you feel trapped.

It takes you great effort to do simple things like just normal things like school, and household chores, you do things slowly
you feel constantly fatigued, you feel lifeless and you gain or lose weight without even trying.

Now compare how you feel now you are in law school and these symptoms of depression.

Answer 2

Depression

Depression is a serious medical illness that involves the brain. It's more than just a feeling of being "down in the dumps" or "blue" for a few days. If you are one of the more than 20 million people in the United States who have depression, the feelings do not go away. They persist and interfere with your everyday life. Symptoms can include

* Sadness
* Loss of interest or pleasure in activities you used to enjoy
* Change in weight
* Difficulty sleeping or oversleeping
* Energy loss
* Feelings of worthlessness
* Thoughts of death or suicide

Depression can run in families, and usually starts between the ages of 15 and 30. It is much more common in women. Women can also get postpartum depression after the birth of a baby. Some people get seasonal affective disorder in the winter. Depression is one part of bipolar disorder. (Read more)

Photograph of a man looking out a window

Answer 3

Clinical depression has certain symptoms, low mood, loss of interest, sleep disturbance, lack of enjoyment in previously enjoyed activities, appetite changes, withdrawal, loss of libido etc., feeling sad and fed up from time to time is normal. Law is a hard degree, but stick at it if you can and you'll have a good career. If you are sure you hate it and this feeling doesn't go after some months, you may be better of changing paths. But beware, all training courses are tough and most peopel hate their courses some of the time.

Answer 4

When you're "just sad", you are sad ABOUT something SPECIFIC, and it is the only thing you have that negative feeling about. You can still be happy when you are not thinking about it or when it is not causing a noticeable effect in your life at the moment.
For instance, if you are "just sad" about your career choice and the studies related to it, then you can still be happy when you are out with friends or engaged in any generally pleasant activity that is not related to your studies.

Depression is an all-pervasive quality. Like smoke in a bar-room, it flows out of and beyond its point(s) of origin and infiltrates every nook, cranny and corner of your life. If you can't lift your mood up out of it when you are not directly involved in its originating cause, then you ARE DEFINITELY depressed, and I would advise you to do something about it IMMEDIATELY!

If you feel that you can't change your course of study, then examine some of the more obscure and little-known aspects of it - some of the less common specialties of the legal prefession - like entertainemnt law or patent law. (Well, YOU would know the list of possibilities better than I would.) You might just find a specialized niche in the legal profession that you would find interesting and enjoyable to study and work in.

Answer 5

Everyone gets sad from time to time. Depression is much worse...it's lasts longer and has other symptoms. You feel hopeless, helpless, low on energy, sleep too much or too little, lose interest in once liked activites, etc.

Answer 6

depression is when you're feeling bad all the time. i don't think that's depression. you're just not happy with the way things are. if you really don't want to be a lawyer then quit. you should do something that makes you happy.

Answer 7

i think its the career you chose. i dont think its depression or sad, its just anxiety, and maybe a subconcious dislike for the career you've chosen for yourself