What are the signs of depression?
The American Psychiatric Association describes depression as a persistent low mood or loss of interest in activities previously enjoyed, present most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks, together with changes in sleep, appetite, energy, concentration or sense of self-worth.
The PHQ-9, the screening questionnaire most clinics use, asks about nine specific things over the last two weeks. They are a useful checklist precisely because they are concrete.
- Little interest or pleasure in doing things.
- Feeling down, depressed or hopeless.
- Trouble falling or staying asleep, or sleeping too much.
- Feeling tired or having little energy.
- Poor appetite or overeating.
- Feeling bad about yourself, or that you are a failure, or that you have let yourself or your family down.
- Trouble concentrating on things such as reading the newspaper or watching television.
- Moving or speaking so slowly that other people could have noticed, or the opposite — being fidgety or restless.
- Thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself in some way.
How long do the signs have to last?
Two weeks is the line health services work from. Below it, a low stretch is a low stretch. Above it, the ordinary explanations start running out, and NHS guidance is to see a GP if you have been feeling down for more than two weeks.
Two weeks is not a magic number. It is the point at which waiting to see stops being a reasonable plan. Nothing bad happens if you go at three weeks and it turns out to have been a rough month; a great deal is lost by waiting six months to be sure.
The other half of the rule is frequency. Most of the day, nearly every day — not a bad evening on Sunday. If the flatness has good hours in it but keeps returning as soon as you are alone, that still counts.
What if I can still work and still laugh?
Then you are like most people with depression. Plenty of people hold down demanding jobs while depressed. Managing to work is not evidence that nothing is wrong; it is often evidence that everything else has been dropped to protect the working hours.
Laughing is not disqualifying either. People with depression still laugh, still have good afternoons, and still show up for the people who need them. Clinicians see this constantly. The useful question is not whether good moments happen but whether they lift the day or vanish the moment they end.
The most reliable way to talk yourself out of an appointment is to compare yourself with someone worse off. That comparison is not a clinical criterion anywhere, and no doctor is keeping a queue ordered by how bad you have it.
Am I depressed, or just sad?
Sadness is usually about something and it still responds. A friend calls and for an hour you are fine. A good meal registers. The feeling is heavy but it is not sealed.
Depression is less like intense sadness and more like a flattening. The loss of interest is the tell: things that used to matter stop pulling on you, including things that require no effort. It travels with the body too — sleep wrong in either direction, appetite changed, concentration frayed enough that you read the same page twice.
And it is not about whether you have a reason. Depression after a genuine loss is still depression, and depression with no explanation is still real. Having a reason does not disqualify you from help.
Check in with yourself right now
Two free things on this site turn the question into something with an answer. Both run in your browser, and neither stores or sends anything.
The PHQ-9 depression self-check is the questionnaire itself, with the standard scoring: nine questions, a score out of 27, and the severity bands published with the instrument. A score of 10 or more is usually the point at which a clinic looks properly. It screens; it does not diagnose, and only a health professional can put a score together with your history, your physical health and your circumstances.
The six-question inventory, "How far am I from feeling like myself?", asks the other question a score cannot: what an ordinary good moment used to contain, and how much of it is still in your life. That list is what you can actually act on this week.
DepreScan is the loop that joins them. A short private check-in about how you have been feeling, sleeping, thinking, socialising and functioning, a simple snapshot of where you are, and then small daily steps aimed at the parts of your life that have slipped. It screens, it never diagnoses.
What do I say to a doctor?
Three sentences are enough: how long, what has changed, and what has gone. "I've been feeling low for about six weeks. I'm sleeping badly and I've stopped doing things I used to like. I'd like some help." You will not be asked to prove it, and you do not need to have worked out what is wrong first.
If you took the PHQ-9, bring the number and the date. It is not a diagnosis, but it is a concrete starting point and it saves you having to find words in the room.
If you answered anything other than "not at all" to the ninth item — thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself — do not wait for an appointment. Call or text 988 in the US, call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, or find your local line at findahelpline.com. If you might act on those thoughts, or someone is in immediate danger, call your local emergency number now.
Questions people ask
How do I know if I am depressed or just having a bad week?
Length, cost and whether it moves. A bad week has a cause and still responds to good things. Depression is a persistent low mood or loss of interest most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks, with changes in sleep, appetite, energy, concentration or self-worth, and it tends to remove things from your life rather than just make them harder. Past two weeks, book an appointment.
Can an online test tell me if I am depressed?
No. A screening questionnaire like the PHQ-9 estimates how much symptom you have reported over two weeks, and a score of 10 or more is usually the point at which a clinic looks properly. That is a signal to be seen, not a conclusion. Diagnosis means a health professional putting the score together with your history, your physical health, your medications and what else is happening in your life.
What are the first signs of depression?
Often not sadness. The early picture is frequently flat rather than tearful: loss of interest in things you used to enjoy, tiredness that sleep does not fix, trouble concentrating, sleep or appetite shifting in either direction, and a quiet withdrawal from people. Many people only recognise it in hindsight, by noticing what left their week rather than by noticing a feeling.
Should I see a doctor if I am not sure?
Yes. Not being sure is the normal state, and sorting it out is what the appointment is for. NHS guidance is to see a GP if you have been feeling down for more than two weeks, with no requirement that you diagnose yourself first. Go sooner if sleep or appetite has changed sharply, if alcohol has crept up, or if you are having thoughts of being better off dead — that is a same-day crisis line call, not an appointment.