Depression doesn’t always look depressed.

We’ve all seen them. The commercials for depression medications that depict someone feeling sad, lethargic, fatigued, generally uninterested in normal activities, and potentially suicidal. It’s a very tidy and logical portrayal. Whether or not you have personally known anyone who has suffered from depression, you see such information and naturally believe you could never miss the signs – in yourself or someone else. 

But what if depression doesn’t always look so obvious? Research is starting to more often highlight what has been dubbed high-functioning depression. Sherry Amatenstein noted that “high-functioning depression, or dysthymia, may be harder to detect than major depressive disorder (MDD) because the people living with it are often high achievers who make you think everything is all right all the time”.  

A person coping with high-functioning depression looks nothing like what the commercials for depression drugs show. In fact, they’re a veritable walking contradiction. Their faces betray what is really happening inside them.

According to the American Journal of Managed Care, “an estimated 19 million americans suffer from depression” and “early detection, intervention, and appropriate treatment can promote remission, prevent relapse, and reduce the emotional and financial burden of the disease”. Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because your depression isn’t paralyzing that it doesn’t require attention or treatment. Get help. 

Depression comes in different forms and can develop under different circumstances. It can affect how you feel, think, sleep, eat, and handle daily activities. It can also be treated.

Unfortunately too many people are ashamed to ask for help,  or they wait until it is so severe that it becomes difficult to recover from. Depression, much like an infection, can creep in and start to grow until it is debilitating. No one feels ashamed to ask for antiseptic spray or medicine to stop an infection and they should not feel ashamed to do the same for depression. After all, we have about as much control at preventing one as we do the other and both can overtake us without much warning.