I think we all have indicators that can help us know when we are depressed. I have a couple: my sense of humor goes away and I have a hard time telling when people are joking; and when my favorite Beatle songs don't make me happy, even for the duration of the song.

So now that you know what your indicators are, what is your next step?

you will have to seek help someplace I suppose....it is not right to have suicide on your thoughts.....and that can be worked on with the right therapist/doctor....hugs

I've come to the conclusion that my suicidal thoughts are actually related to my hormones. It took 40 years for me to figure this out, but there it is. It's odd, there have been times when I've read descriptions of postpartum depression and felt that I could have written them, but I've never even been pregnant once in my entire life. In one of those descriptions, a young mother was out walking with a friend on a beautiful day and she turned to her friend and said something along the lines of, "I know I'm supposed to be happy right now, but I just can't feel it." I guess what I'm saying is that, yes, others have experienced what you're experiencing. For me, it may closely related to hormones. For others there could be a number of other causes. It's probably best for you to speak to a professional about it, and keep reaching out, reading, learning, and monitoring your emotions to help figure out what you think might be causing your depression. The more confident you are about the cause(s), the better you may be able to find remedies. Depression can be unique to every sufferer, which can be terribly frustrating, but you can find relief and joy in between the low periods. Good luck to you.

This sounds crazy but are you able to just go to bed for a couple of weeks? Just - be 'ill'.?

I think depression is closely tied in with energy, and with a sense of ability to do with our life what we want to do with it. I've noticed a few things in my LONG relationship with my energy and mood....

I find that if I can stop and rest, for even a week, of doing NOTHING with no responsibilities other than to feed myself - I start to fill up again. And as I fill up again, my sense of ideas of 'hey you could do this' comes back.

When I'm at an energy low, all I want to do is absolutely nothing.

So here's my recipe for some kind of mood improvement.

1. rest.
go to bed at 10:00pm. Remove all electronic devices from your bedroom. If you can't sleep, read a book. Any book. But real book, real paper - no electronic devices.

2. discipline.
Get up every morning whether you want to or not, on this holiday, maybe as late as 10:00am but try to be earlier.
Do the dishes. Do the chores. Clean the house. If you need help with this, put on energetic music and tell yourself you will only clean while it's going.

3. sunshine.
you might choose to sit around all day watching movies, or whatever mindless waste of time activity you want to indulge - but try to get some sunshine in.

4. Grow a plant.
Get a potplant and keep it fed and watered. Sit with it a few minutes every day. Watch it grow, let it flower.

Here's the plant I just bought, as a small cutting. I'm nurturing it up.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/a0/7b/c3/a07bc3d721e4bc1f280e75915bbc0082.jpg

It's really dangerous with depression, because you get into a spiral. Low energy means you don't do the self-nurturing things. Not doing the self-nurturing things means you get more down. Being more down means you do even less to self nurture.

It takes grit and determination to, like sisyphus, push your way back up the mountain. But you have to.

There's no logical alternative. You have to rest as much as you can, feed yourself emotionally as much as you can, nurture yourself as much as you can. Find beauty and sit looking at it. Soak it up.

But let yourself be ill. Let yourself be tired. let yourself rest when you can.

Thank you for sharing your feelings. I would like to agree with one of the previous comments by saying that indeed knowing about your indicators of depression is great but not good enough. They should propel you into action preferably talking about it with those close to you. You can also try to be flexible and increase your engagements in activities on top of what you are used to. I hope you can speak about your feelings with your friends. Can you try to be patient with yourself and replace those bad feelings with pride, even in small accomplishments? May be you can join a social club or a sporting club or consider having a walk or any other form of physical exercise. You may also consider talking with a therapist or a counselor. I will be praying for you to have peace of mind.

I agree with Bridgi. I find that when I push my depression away and make myself move forward, I stay in my rut. But when I let myself feel it and rest up (sleep when I feel I need to sleep, lounge when I want to lounge and do nothing,or even stay inside my home keeping to myself because I don't feel like socializing and I listen to my feelings,) I make myself happy again. My mom always told me when I'm down, do something that makes you happy and don't do things you don't want to do. A lot of times I feel "obligated" to do things that will make others happy but I notice it just makes me angry and resentful because it brings me down. I'm in a rut right now and am slow lying doing things I feel I want to do everyday, and it makes my soul happy. I would also suggest finding someone to talk to (psychiatrist, psychologist, etc). Friends and family are good but they aren't always equipped to move us in the right direction. Also, the more we talk to them about the same thing, some end up getting sympathy burn out and it becomes unhealthy for both parties. Hope this helps. We are here for you!