Depression

Almost everybody has felt depressed or sad at times. Experiencing a depression can be a common response to life’s hardship, loss of a loved one, or low self-esteem.

Clinical depression is when you start experiencing extreme sadness that triggers hopeless, helpless and worthless feelings. These intense feelings can go on for days or weeks and restrain you from enjoying daily normal activities although it sounds serious clinical depression can be managed.

Symptoms of depression:
As per DSM-IV list of mental disorders depression takes place when you show the following symptoms at the same occurrence:

Depressed mood throughout the day, especially in the morning
Feeling tired almost every day
Feeling worthless or guilty pretty much every day
Less focus and inability to decide due to loss of concentration
Unwarranted sleeping or insomnia
Loss of interest or enjoyment in usual activities almost every day
Frequent thoughts of suicide and not being afraid of death
Being restless referred as psycho-motor agitation or being slow in motion
Weight loss or body weight gain due to overeating

With all these signs you can pretty much conclude if one is in pre-depressive mood or depression.
The depressive symptoms must not be the direct result of substance such as psychotropic drugs or medications that have side effects. Those with hypothyroidism are also excluded. One thing to note if the symptoms show up within 2 months of the loss of a relative, they won’t be considered as depression symptoms. have hypomania or mania.