6 Signs It’s Depression, Not Just Tiredness

Are you going through life feeling like a zombie? You wake up every morning without any energy, your mind is stuck in a fog, simple tasks take a great amount of effort and you want to lie down all the time but resting never helps. If this sounds like you, you might be exhibiting signs of depression, which can leave you persistently exhausted.

Here are six signs it’s depression, not just tiredness.

This is a disclaimer that this article is for informative purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider or mental health professional if you are struggling.

1) You’re oversleeping

woman sleeping in bed near smartphone — Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com

Do you sleep far more than usual? Most people sleep between seven and eight hours per night, but if you have depression, disruptions in the neurotransmitters that regulate sleep might leave you sleeping for ten or more hours per night. Even after sleeping for so long, you feel just as tired as before, and still want to take more naps.

2) You’re undersleeping

On the other hand, do you sleep far less than usual? People with depression can have highly disturbed sleep patterns that lead to insomnia. If it takes you over an hour to get to sleep and you awaken all the time for no obvious reason, this could be another sign of depressive symptoms leaving you exhausted.

3) Nothing makes you happy anymore

Unhappy female wearing smiling mask vector graphic illustration. Woman with sad mood holding happy mask isolated on white background. False emotion face expression

Have you lost pleasure in activities you once enjoyed? A common symptom of depression is anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure in anything. Your most cherished pastimes become meaningless chores that you’re too tired to deal with. Nothing cheers you up or even interests you.

4) You’ve lost appetite and weight

Do cooking and eating feel like burdens? Depression can turn daily tasks into great difficulties and reduce your desire to eat, leading to dramatically less food consumption and unhealthy weight loss. This often takes the form of a vicious cycle – you’re too tired to cook and eat, which reduces the energy you consume, which makes you even more tired.

5) You’ve gained appetite and weight

On the other hand, do you feel a voracious desire to eat more? Depression can intensify specific food cravings that feel like the only way to feel pleasure in life, but they never really satisfy you at all, and you are always wanting more. This often leads to unhealthy weight gain that can feel out of control.

6) You constantly feel sadness and guilt

If the previous signs sounded familiar, how did you feel about them? Depression often overwhelms you with never-ending feelings of sadness and guilt that add obsessive negative judgments about yourself on top of existing struggles. You experience exhaustion and call yourself lazy, you feel no pleasure and call yourself a killjoy, you eat too little and call yourself wasteful, you eat too much and call yourself greedy, you achieve nothing and call yourself unproductive. These constant judgments sap you of your energy and make you even more tired.

Do you relate to any of the symptoms mentioned in this article? Let us know in the comments below. And don’t forget to like and share this article if you think it will help someone else. The studies and references used are listed in the description below.