How can depression symptoms lead to a depression diagnosis?
To be diagnosed with clinical depression, you must exhibit one of the first two and at least five of the other symptoms listed above. Such disturbances must be present nearly daily for at least two weeks. Depression symptoms can last for months or years. They can cause significant personality changes and changes in work habits, making it difficult for others to have empathy for you. Some symptoms are so disabling that they interfere significantly with your ability to function. In very severe cases, people with depression may be unable to eat or even to get out of bed. Symptomatic episodes may occur only once in a lifetime or may be recurrent, chronic, or longstanding. In some cases, they seem to last forever. Occasionally, symptoms appear to be precipitated by life crises or other illnesses. At other times, they occur at random. Clinical depression commonly occurs along with other medical illnesses such as heart disease or cancer and worsens the prognosis for these illnesses.
