Depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.

Depression symptoms include:

• Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
• Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
• Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
• Loss of energy or increased fatigue
• Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., hand-wringing or pacing) or slowed movements and speech (actions observable by others)
• Feeling worthless or guilty
• Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
• Thoughts of death or suicide

Depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults (6.7%) in any given year. And one in six people (16.6%) will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can strike at any time, but on average, first appears during the late teens to mid-20s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies show that one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime.

Citing: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression

Depression is a common side effect of being involved in a family law case. Experiencing depression as part of a divorce and/or custody case is normal. It does not mean that you are crazy, weak or broken. Also, being a part of a case can exacerbate symptoms of depression.

Below is a simple “test” that is available online. It is the Beck Depression Inventory. It is the standard in helping diagnosing depression.

http://treat-depression.com/depression-test

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI, BDI-1A, BDI-II), created by Aaron T. Beck, is a 21-question multiple-choice self-report inventory, one of the most widely used psychometric tests for measuring the severity of depression.

Matthew Thompson is a family law attorney and reminds you that an online test is no replacement for an evaluation by your physician, counselor or healthcare professional.