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Quoting from the Wikipedia, the symptoms of depression are:
Persistent sad, anxious or “empty” mood
Loss of appetite and/or weight loss or conversely overeating and weight gain
Insomnia, early morning awakening, or oversleeping
Restlessness or irritability
Psychomotor agitation or psychomotor retardation
Feelings of worthlessness, inappropriate guilt, helplessness
Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism
Difficulty thinking, concentrating, remembering or making decisions
Thoughts of [[death]] or suicide or attempts at suicide
Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed
Withdrawal from social situations, family and friends
Decreased energy, fatigue, feeling “slowed down” or sluggish
Persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as headaches, digestive problems, and chronic pain
Decrease/Feeling in motor-speed (time seems to slow down)
These are mostly the external symptoms. While the exact thoughts vary from person to person, here is how I felt:
I felt I was bad and evil. That I was a bad person, having a bad influence on the world, and that “God hated me”.
I felt this was my true state, and that my happy, capable, intelligent and active state was due to “a pact with the devil” or something along these lines.
I found that the thoughts haunted me, that I couldn’t really sleep, and was afraid of thinking.
I believed the entire world was bad and kept perceiving everything as bad.
I had trouble communicating with others, and was afraid to tell them how I felt.
I found it harder to do things that I normally find easy to do. For example, I spent hours on end solving a single math problem. I kept convincing myself that it should be easy which made me feel much worse.
I was consumed and overwhelmed with guilt. I felt guilty for many things that I perceived as wrong.