Depression- My questions

For a long time I knew I had something wrong with me but I never told anyone so a lot of the questions I had couldn't be answered. I thought today I would write about a few of the things that worried me which I think would have helped if I'd known the answers to. Of course depression is different for everyone so answers can change. Here we go:


1. Is it depression or am I just sad?  - Usually depression is not just feeling sad, it's also feeling hopeless and losing interest in what you used to like. Symptoms are frequent and stay for a long time instead of feeling sad for a day. Often with depression, you won't feel sad about a certain thing or situation (you can sometimes feel worse about certain things than you normally would), you will most likely find that you're sad with out a reason.

2. Can anyone get depression?  - I often felt like I couldn't have depression because I thought it was something that only happened to people who've had difficult lives. Honestly I have had quite an easy life, with friends, a family and no childhood trauma which made me think that I couldn't have something wrong with me. But it doesn't work that way, depression is a mental illness which can happen to  anyone, it doesn't just happen to certain people. 

3. Is depression constant? - Depression is something that can come and go. You can have good days or a good week, it doesn't mean you're completely free from depression, it just means you're doing well. It does not have to be a constant thing you think about or feel every minute of the day. 

4. Should I be crying  all the time for no reason? - A common belief is that when you have depression you cry a lot, sometimes for no reason, but this actually isn't something everyone experiences. Some people don't find that they will cry much and others can't cry at all. 

5.  Do I have to self harm to be depressed? - Self harm is sometimes almost seen as a symptom of depression, many people believe that everyone with depression must self harm. This is thought because many people do self harm (as a side note: not everyone who self harms has depression) to help them cope with depression but this is a coping strategy that many people do not agree with. People use self harm as a way to help themselves but this isn't something everyone finds helpful. 

 I hope that this may have answered some questions or helped to gain a little more knowledge of the subject. If you have any questions or anything to add, let me know in the comments. That's all for now, hope to see you next time. Bye