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We can diagnose depression ourselves using a depression self-test. Depression is a generic word for a variety of conditions whose major common feature is the presence of a lowering of mood. Depression could be the chief presentation of an array of symptoms such as poor sleep, loss of or excessive appetite, weight loss or gain, poor concentration and memory, guilt feelings, loss of interest in the things we normally enjoy, even loss of our sex drive (libido). This combination of symptoms, if occurring together for more than two weeks, should warrant a depression self-test, but ideally a complete depression evaluation by a mental health professional.
Depression could also be part of other major mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, alcohol, and substance abuse, or it could be part of a temporary or longer-lasting reaction to adverse events in our lives, such as death in the family, the break-up of a relationship, even children leaving home for college.
Whatever the origin of depression, we should not take it lightly as even the most benign can rapidly escalate and become worse and potentially dangerous to our very existence. A depression self-test can alert us to the need to seek further medical help.
The consequences of depression vary but suicide stands out as the most significant. We should all be able to recognize depression in ourselves and in those around us. Many people attempt suicide only because they were "crying for help." Even those who are not often talk about it before they do. Sadly, we often do not hear these "cries" or simply dismiss the intense psychic pains of those trying to tell us something sinister is about to happen to them they seem powerless to stop. We can prevent this tragic end-result of depression by using a depression self-test and encouraging those around us to do the same.
There are several different types of depression self-tests. All of them ask you individual questions about whether or not you experience a number of depression symptoms. Most of these tests are pen-and-pencil-questionnaires you will also find on the Internet. The Zung self-rating depression scale is a twenty-item depression self-test. The test is rated on a four-point Likert scale with the least score being for your response that indicates you hardly experience the depression symptom in question and the highest score indicating that you experience it most of the time. The Center for epidemiological studies depression scale uses the same rating method. You should consider yourself depressed if you scored above a cut-off point that varies with the different tests.
While it is desirable to use a depression self-test, you should be careful not to substitute them for the need to have a thorough check-up by your doctor or to seek appropriate professional help whenever necessary. Some of the depression self-tests, are of questionable reliability and validity. You should therefore be careful to use depression self-tests that emanate from trusted sources. You should also be aware that some of the questions in the depression self-tests are reverse-scored. You need to be able to identify these questions and score them correctly. This means that you should read the scoring instructions of any depression self-test you choose carefully since your score on these tests that will determine if or not you are depressed.
Depression self-tests are useful for everyone since we are all vulnerable to being depressed. Most depression self-tests are user-friendly and the questions are couched in easily understandable forms. Some of them are brief but some are very long. Certain depression self-tests are for children and adolescents. Do not assume that your child cannot be depressed simply because he or she is a child. Children too become depressed, even suicidal. Children, depression and antidepressant use have recently been a highly publicized topic. Parents can use certain depression self-test methods to identify the early onset of a psychiatric problem in their children.
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