Are you one of those people who seems to deal with fatigue, constant low moods, and self-esteem issues but still pretend everything is alright and go about their regular daily work? Perhaps you should take a moment and stop because, believe it or not, you could be suffering from ‘High Functioning Depression.’ An expert in licensed marriage and family therapy went on Instagram and said that depression does not have a particular face by which it is identified. A person can be happy on the outside but still suffer from the effects of depression. Simply put, one could appear that they have everything set together and nothing is wrong, but internally suffer from the devastating effects that depression leaves behind.
So this begs the question; What is high-functioning depression? When asked, experts say that high-functioning depression is a variant of depression where the patient is inflicted with most effects that depression seems to have but without the impairment aspect that depression normally seems to come with. To put it in simple terms, within high-functioning depression, the patient will feel all the effects of depression but will not feel any need to stop doing their regular work. High functional depression is worse than chronic depression as it doesn’t tend to give the patient time to stop and recuperate. Within ordinary cases of depression, a patient can still take time to stop and help themselves. But in its high-functioning variant, the patient does not give themselves time to heal, which worsens the problem.
Certain symptoms are associated with high-functioning depression. Experts say that they are very similar to major depressive disorders (MDD) and may or may not be less intense for some people. A few of them are:
- Loss of energy, Fatigue.
- Changes in sleep and appetite.
- Social withdrawal.
- Chronic feelings of hopelessness or helplessness.
- Low mood.
Are there any treatment options for high-functioning depression? The answer to that question is, yes, there is. Experts say that Psychological and psychiatric interventions are the way to go regarding this form of depression. In the short run, the patients can use antidepressants to keep their symptoms in check, While psychotherapy can go on parallelly, which will end up helping them in the long term.
