There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of articles written saying, "These are symptoms of depression..." Well, I'm here to tell you that these articles are complete and utter bullshit. I encourage you to read all the way to the end.
Now, I am not saying that these articles are wrong. As a matter of fact, these articles are right, that the symptoms they list are indeed sometimes part and parcel of depression. Now, as we Americans tend to do, we tend to skim sentences, and I want to draw you to the single most important word in that last sentence: "sometimes."
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There's a saying that I once heard about mental illness: "If you've met one person with [insert illness here], then you've met one person with [insert same mental illness]." What this means is, say that you've met one person with Borderline Personality Disorder. Well, then you've met one person with that particular disorder, and you can't generalize how a particular disorder is going to manifest itself based on how it affects one person.
This is something that many people do, especially with depression. Depression has been referred to as "the common cold of mental disorder." Basically, it's really common. And because so many people have it, we have been able to build fairly comprehensive lists of ways that depressions can manifest itself. However, this is where human biases can begin to hinder understanding. You see, when many people view those lists, they tend to draw the wrong conclusion and say, "Well, if you don't have x number of symptoms that are on this list, then you obviously don't have depression." This is something that I have faced not only from people who do not have a diagnosis of some kind of depression, but also from people who do have a diagnosis. I've heard, "Well, I am diagnosed, and these are my symptoms, so you don't have it." I need you, the reader, to understand that I am not generalizing about people who have depression, I am simply passing along experiences that I have had.
I have a lot of manifestations of depression. Some range from very mild, such as occasional fatigue, to incredibly serious, such as wanting to kill myself. Many times, I am able to mask these symptoms. But sometimes, I simply can't. Many of the ways that my depression manifests itself are not on these lists, at least most of the time. And yet I have a diagnosis of depression (combined with other things, so that's fun.) Does my not having the symptoms suggested by the lists, or that are not shared by many other people, discredit my diagnosis? No, not even a little bit. That's like saying, "Well, my car has gas, so you can't be out of gas."
Basically, what these lists are trying to do for people is increase knowledge of depression, because despite it being very common it's still wildly misunderstood. My problem isn't with the lists themselves, it's from the conclusions that people tend to draw from these lists that are, more often than not, the wrong conclusion.
