Recognise the Symptoms

Jeff, your comments are so fun! Kenny, I hope his comments help you. By the way, for your information, Jeff was headboy when we were in Sixth Form. And, we still keep in touch -- with a few others, too!

Anonymous is right. You need to know that the problem is depression before you can get help. Often, the depression sufferer won't know what he or she is going through. It helps a great deal if someone close recognises the symptoms and helps him or her to get help. That person must persist until the depression sufferer agrees to get help and, perhaps, even take the person to the therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist for the necessary help.

The symptoms vary depending on the degree of depression. Generally, they are a sadness that just won't go away, loss of interest or pleasure, overwhelming fear or helplessness, anxiety etc, etc, weight loss or weight gain, memory issues, tiredness and a whole lot of other symptoms. There are many websites that give information on depression, the symptoms and how to identify it. This is one website which gives a comprehensive explanation: http://www.iampanicked.com/anxiety-articles/symptoms-of-depression.htm

Generally, you feel these things which disable you from fully doing all the things a non-depression sufferer will do. In my case, I took on jobs that were under my capacity until I was able to cope.