The 9 Signs of Hidden Depression
Depression, as many already know, is a very
serious disorder that completely disrupts one’s daily routine, and is
recognized as a clinical disorder by all professionals. However, there
is still a negative social taboo surrounding depression, which causes
those who have it - and there are quite a few who do - to try to hide
it, instead of involving the people close to them in order to try to
find a solution.
With the following 9 signs, you can
identify when others - your relatives, friends or family - are trying to
hide depression, and it is important that you recognize them because
only then can you provide them with the help they need.
9 Signs that a person is dealing with
hidden depression
1. They tend to speak "philosophically"
People suffering from repressed depression tend to talk a lot about
philosophical issues and are dragged into talking in abstract sentences,
in ways you haven’t noticed before. Suddenly, every little conversation
with them takes a turn toward talking about the meaning of life. They
speak sentences that aren’t entirely clear when one can understand that
they are searching for the meaning of life and tend toward
"self-flagellation" in a different and more dramatic way than usual.
Raising subjects of conversation such as life and death, the burden of
life and the burden they take upon themselves, should definitely raise a
red flag and make you understand that the person sitting in front of
you is depressed.
2. Distancing and constantly seeking excuses
People who develop hidden depression tend to look for excuses to hide
their true feelings and the sadness they suffer from and put on a “mask”
of happiness so that others don’t sense their hurting. In most cases,
the more time you spend with a person who is hiding their depression the
more clear it will become that they are depressed. Therefore, people
who don’t want others to know about their feelings, tend to distance
themselves and spend less time with others, as well as invent different
excuses to avoid social events.
3. Psychosomatic disorders
People who develop depression tend to complain of heart pain, pressure
in the legs and hands, difficulty breathing, headaches, and toothaches
and other such clinical symptoms. Usually, when such people are
examined, their physical and health condition is found to be perfectly
normal. This unexplained sensitivity and these feelings of pain indicate
an unstable inner state and the development of psychosomatic disorders -
disorders caused by mental factors. There is a rather vicious cycle of
depression that leads to physical pains that cause it to worsen until
things become clearer and one understands that the person is depressed.
4. Sloppy appearance
A depressive mood tends to affect a person’s appearance, whether or not
they want it to. If someone around you stops suddenly keeping the most
basic rules of hygiene, doesn’t keep their house clean, goes out with
inappropriate clothing and generally, their appearance seems grossly
sloppy - even if their overall behavior isn’t indicative if depression -
you still have reason to question whether or not everything is okay.
5. Have difficulty controlling their
emotions and don’t react appropriately to situations
People who disguise their depression are more exposed than others to
emotional influences on their normal behavior, and this is certainly
reflected in their daily conduct. For example, you can notice that a
person who doesn’t usually get teary from movies suddenly bursts into
tears from just about anything, or alternatively a person who doesn’t
get annoyed much suddenly swears rudely and is overcome with road rage
when driving. Conversely, things can go the other way: the depressed can
become apathetic, stop expressing their opinions and wishes, suddenly
agree with everything they have been told, don’t respond when insulted,
and so on and so forth, this behavior should put up a red flag.
6. Demonstration of excessive happiness
Another sign of hidden depression that is related to the inability to
respond appropriately to different situations is the attempt by people
who have it to hide their true feeling behind a mask of positivity,
sometimes even overly exaggerated. As a rule, those who try hard to hide
depression tend to look happy and carefree, but they do so in such a
way that it's easy to see that things aren’t as they seem and that they
are actually hiding bad feelings.
signs of hidden depression
7. They often “chew the mental cud”
When
people are depressed, they tend to become obsessed with certain things.
For example, in the search for solutions to their predicament, they
begin to take on obsessive-compulsive thoughts, creating the illusion
that these repeated reflections are the way to find the answer, although
in practice they have no real answer. It is not difficult to notice
that a friend or person close to you “chews the mental cud”: they often
ponder out loud, their mind is distracted and they keep talking about
the same problem, but don’t try to act on a solution at all
8. A sense
of continuous exhaustion
One of the most common symptoms of depression
is the feeling of prolonged exhaustion, and when a person tries to
disguise their depression, this feeling is only exacerbated. Although
not everyone who is coping with this disorder suffers from fatigue, it
is a very common issue, which challenges many people who suffer from
depression and try to hide it. If you notice that someone close to you
finds it difficult to cope with routine tasks, forgets information, gets
tired easily, even if they sleep well at night, you should try to find
out if there’s something deeper going on.
https://www.ba-bamail.com/spirituality/the-9-signs-of-hidden-depression/
9. Development of irregular eating habits
Irregular eating habits develop in a person coping with depression for
two main reasons: as a form of coping with the problem, or as a side
effect associated with a lack of self-concern, as in the section on
sloppy appearance. Overeating or lack of eating are obvious symptoms of
depression, which should be noticed. Overeating is often linked to a
person's desire to be filled somehow from the inside, and thus make
themselves happy with something external, while non-eating may indicate
feelings such as lack of desire and interest.
How to help a person that has developed hidden depression
If you notice that one of your loved ones or someone close to you has
developed one or more of the symptoms that we mentioned here, the best
solution is to talk to them first and offer help, try to talk about the
things that are bothering them and remove the masks. In such a
conversation it is important not to try to minimize the value of the
person's problems or joke about them in order to ease the situation, but
take them seriously - try to genuinely help them, by really touching on
the problems they’re dealing with and not with empty words like "cheer
up," “just relax,” or “stop acting like that." In any case, if the
person in front of you refuses to talk, don’t try to force them, but
keep an eye on their behavior. Be attentive, and let the person dealing
with the problem feel that you are here for them.
T