Depression
Feeling sad, down, and unmotivated? You’re not alone. Depression is one of the most common mental health concerns people may face during their lives. Military service members and their families are at higher risk of developing depression due to several factors, including unpredictable changes to their routine, stressful work duties, deployment, long duty hours, and frequent relocation.
Common signs of depression:
- Sadness and tearfulness most days, that does not go away
- Irritability, fatigue, and low motivation
- Problems with memory, concentration, and difficulties making decisions
- Feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, or guilt
- Loss of interest in activities and things that you used to enjoy
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Eating too much or too little
- Thoughts about disappearing, death, or dying, and self-harm behaviors
- Withdrawing from family and friends
- Learn more about depression.
Ways to manage depression:
- Increase your physical activity. Depression feeds on inactivity. Start by creating small, achievable goals for your activity (i.e., 'I will go for a 20-minute walk every day after work') and work on increasing these slowly for most success. It may be difficult to get started at first and sometimes it may be difficult to do things overall. Treat each day as a new day.
- Re-engage in the activities you used to enjoy. Plan these activities ahead of time for greater chance of success. Aim to have at least one or two fun or pleasurable activities during your week.
- Reach out to your family and friends. You don’t have to talk about how you feel; just spending time in social activities can be helpful to your mood.
- Try practicing daily relaxation and self-care skills. Even a few minutes of self-care a day can begin to boost your mood:
- Deep Breathing
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation
- Mindfulness Meditation
- Yoga
When to seek help:
- If you're having frequent thoughts about disappearing, dying, or thoughts about self-harm. For example, having thoughts that you would like to go to sleep and not wake up or thinking of ways to die.
- If the problem is severe and long-lasting. This is a problem that occurs often (most days of the week) and has lasted longer than two weeks.
- Depression difficulties are affecting multiple areas of your life, such as your work, home life, relationships, engagement in hobbies and activities, and overall performance.
- If you are using alcohol, drugs, or engaging in risky behaviors (i.e., unprotected sex, gambling, speeding, self-harm) to cope.
Where to seek help:
Self-Assessment Tool:
The PHQ-9 is an online screening tool to depression. If you score above five, consider implementing self-care tools or seeking treatment. Read through the nine items to better understand what depression symptoms look like, answer the questions honestly, and seek resources to support you as needed.