For many, the symptoms of depression are anchored in the emotional, cognitive, or psychological aspects of daily life, sometimes making depression feel like an invisible illness that you’re fabricating or overreacting to. That’s why it’s important to fight the stigma around depression and treat our mental health just as seriously as our physical health.
At the same time, many may only feel depression’s physical effects, making it hard to believe that a mood disorder is even at play. And when we downplay how our body shows us that depression has us in its grip, we might avoid treatment and risk losing more of ourselves to it.
That’s why it’s important to understand the physical symptoms that depression can create, and why they should be taken seriously.
What Is Major Depressive Disorder?
Major depressive disorder (MDD) goes by many names — depression, clinical depression, melancholy — and it can feel like a never-ending sadness that pushes you away from others and cuts the invisible cord that connects your heart to the life you’re living. MDD is a powerful mood disorder that goes beyond seasonal blues or heartbreak. It can change how you see yourself and how others see you in daily life, at work, in school, with friends, and in love.
But before we dive into how it shows up in the body, understanding how intangible symptoms can evolve into physical signs may help clarify your experience.
Emotional symptoms of depression may show up as:
- Feelings of deep sadness, hopelessness, or emptiness
- Angry outbursts or irritability over minor inconveniences
- Weepiness or feeling like you need to cry often
- Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
Cognitive symptoms can include:
- Anxious thoughts or rumination about past failures
- Gradual or even sudden loss of love for hobbies, physical contact, or loved ones
- Trouble focusing, making decisions, or having memory problems
- Frequent thoughts of death or suicidal thoughts
- Slower thinking
Now that you have an understanding of just how mentally menacing depression can be, we can explore how non-physical symptoms can transform and present in the body in visible ways.
Depression in the Body
Now, it’s entirely possible that you have depression and never experience any cognitive or emotional symptoms. MDD can be purely physical for many patients, but we can draw parallels between the physical and everything else.
Unexplained Back Pain
Sadness and hopelessness can feel like a heavy burden. One patient recorded in a book of short stories called Journeys With The Black Dog even described depression as a weighted object: “Each day was like having to drag your own shadow around behind you – heavy, weighted, leaden.” Imagine you had to carry around another you all day—wouldn’t your back hurt, too?
Uncharacteristic Headaches
What if you woke up tomorrow and, suddenly, multiple, raging beasts had taken over your mind, living loudly and rent-free all day long? You can probably already feel a migraine coming on — that’s depression. As another patient put it in Journeys With The Black Dog: “It felt like my head was a hellish prison, a gloomy and frightening labyrinth alive with relentless, malevolent beasts.”
Changes in Weight
It’s hard to feel hungry when depression makes you feel like you can’t feel anything at all. Sylvia Plath may have said it best in The Bell Jar: “I couldn’t feel a thing … because wherever I sat … I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.” Mental health and nutrition have many connections, so when MDD creates full-body numbness, you may lose your appetite and lose noticeable amounts of weight.
Sleep Issues
Imagine just watching a scary movie about a monster that whispers in the night — then having to head straight to bed (impossible!). You’d probably fight to keep your mind off the images and whispers that you heard in the movie. Maybe you’d struggle to fall asleep, waking up sleep-deprived in the morning.
Here’s how another contributor to Journeys With The Black Dog described depression: “It’s as if I’m possessed by something sinister. It’s like having a little man on your shoulder, whispering in your ear constantly how worthless you are.”
That’s kind of how depression can show up and ruin your sleep, forcing you to ruminate on your mistakes — robbing you of sleep.
Miramont Offers Support for Depression in Wisconsin
Currently, depression is the most common psychological disorder worldwide, and, in 2021, it affected nearly 40% of adults in Wisconsin. Today, Miramont Behavioral Health is here to offer treatment to those people—and to anyone else struggling with MDD. If you know that your body is telling you it’s time to get help for depression, we can help, whether it’s through Waukesha-based outpatient treatment or inpatient care at our Middleton facility.
Contact us today to learn how.
