Anybody else have outward signs of their mental state?

I'm the same way dude. When I am in a good mood every thing is done, house is clean, I mean every thing, and I am even really social. But as soon as depression hits I have no motivation to do anything. Not even the things I love, and things just pile up.

 

It's pretty common for depression to manifest itself in this way, due to lack of motivation. I'm not the most organised person to begin with, but when I'm depressed, I'll let my desk and surrounding area get like a mess with dishes and soda cans (I eat in my room a lot). The same goes with clothes; sometimes, I won't even be able to tell which ones are clean and which are dirty, because I just threw them in one pile.

It's embarrassing to admit, but my personal hygiene suffers as well. I won't shower for days, because it feels like too much effort. Feeling unclean makes me feel even more depressed, yet still I can't find the strength to bathe. If I have to go out, I'll force myself to wash up, but I'll usually just stay in the house anyway.

 

I'm the same. Lately I've not even been getting dressed, and people have noticed.
I always have anxiety behaviours, such as pulling my hair out, and biting my lip.

 

Yeah. When I'm depressed, which is perpetually, I care about nothing. House is a mess, no motive to fix anything. Gain weight if I'm in enough of a slump.

 

I have periods of it when I cant motivate myself much am not one for staying in bed all day I just sit around with the telly on .people may not agree with me but at times a few beers helps me .

 

Yes, but I still do what needs to be done. Depression shows more in my attitude than in my habits.

 

I practically wear my heart on my sleeve, but I'm getting better about keeping it in when I'm in public. It's pretty hard when I'm really down though.

 

When I am in a good mood, I do like to relax at home and watch TV, etc..

But when things aren't going good, I'm basically in my room all day, only going out for school, homework, food, and using the bathroom. I never tell my parents what's going on, because I feel like they'll just tell me "Snap out of it!", which is what I usually get from them. Since I have Internet connection on my Nintendo 3ds, I'm on EC and Facebook®™ all the time. I eat significantly less, I wonder how my parents never suspect anything being wrong, and cry myself to sleep, knowing that I can trust hardly anybody. Nobody in my family, nobody at school, so the only people I can trust are people on EC and Facebook®™, people I have never met. All of this is something that I go through a lot.

 

I'm a chronic depressive so i do give off signs, but people here are really understanding and supportive. If it weren't for them, i'd probably be a wreck.

 

I tend to reach out a lot more, which sounds like the opposite of most people. I just want to be around my friends and have them hug me and love me because I feel like crap and I want someone to be there.

I also don't do any work. I tend to avoid homework until the very last second, or just don't do it all. Usually I do it all very quick and early, but not when I'm depressed.

I just argue a lot more too and I'm no fun to be around. Any little thing you do that might bug me sets me off.

 

Well I've had depression for a while now & I told my friends I just need to be alone...they think something bad happened to me but actually I'm carrying on as usual, I just decided to stop faking my enjoyment of social things.

Oftentimes, depression goes unnoticed by others, but just the other day...
Friend: Hi! How are you?
Me: Good!
Friend: You don't look good.
Me: Uhh...
Friend: You bought food from the market and are going back to the dorm. You don't feel good enough to eat at the cafteria.
Me: ...ok.

 

Usually for me when my life seems to not be going my way I try to basically control everything else so its kinda the opposite, like I'll organize and stuff.
Then I retreat into really frustrating repetitive behaviors which is not fun.

 

There was an especially troublesome period for me in the last 5 years. It lasted about 6 months. It dealt with very high anxiety, exponential to more minor outbreaks at earlier points in my life, and I had trouble dealing with such a high level of it. People were wondering what was up and I sensed they sensed something. It did not have to do with sexual issues.

As for being depressed, people have picked up when I've been down, but was higher functioning than in the episode described above. A couple of people have called me "moody," mostly during my 20s. I know myself well and they didn't. The "moodiness" was a bout with depression. Otherwise, I'd be up and fairly consistent. I'd rather have neither, but given the choice, I'd take depression over anxiety. I've developed enough coping strategies to deal with depression.

 

When I'm feeling a bad bout of depression, I usually am "normal", but I don't initiate interaction and disengage as soon as I can.

When I'm anxious, I have trouble keeping composure. I will try to withdraw into myself like a hermit crab, and cover my face. It sometimes looks as if I'm being dragged into myself. That's a big giveaway.

When I get an apathetic "I hate you all" mood, I tend to lose any sense of humour, correct people, and don't engage with them properly, but I will correct and condescend people. It's not good, but I lose all patience during generally apathetic moods.

 

For me the worse I feel the messier my bedroom gets. I help less with housework, and when I do do it, I'm a lot slower.

 

The most noticeable thing I do is just get quiet if I'm feeling detached or uncomfortable I guess. I probably dont let on much of my feelings except on the internet. Actually I feel like I have less and less people I can do that with lately. Hmm. I probably post on EC more if I'm feeling sad or lonely too <_<

I guess I really do like talking about my feelings there's just a lack of people interested in them so I don't say anything and they dont show through much

 

In terms of housework: At the beginning of my first year of uni I did my washing up after every meal. By the end of my second year (i.e. three months ago) I was lucky if I found the motivation to do it once a week.

As for everything else, it depends how manipulative I'm feeling - I know, I'm such a lovely person. First depressive episode, I kept an airtight, stoic poker face that nobody could see through until I let them. Current depressive episode, things are coming a bit more clearly to the surface (especially in terms of posting angry or depressing facebook statuses, but also in terms of being more socially withdrawn in general) - sometimes that's because I'm so overwhelmed that I can't help myself, but more often it's because I need to use my mental state to play a little game of chess with the people around me.

 

For me, if I'm feeling really down or anxious, I won't eat often (I lost over 10 pounds in July alone for this reason, I've started to gain weight again) either because I don't have an appetite or I'm too anxious enjoy a meal. I become more lethargic and sluggish, feel detachment, slower mental cognition, a LOT of rumination, wanting to cry but won't, not concentrating on school work (which is not my strong suit as it is) and not caring as much about my grades.

I can become stoic and analytic which doesn't really apply to all situations. I don't respond to jokes well, and my speech and behaviors can become monotone and lazy. And probably some other stuff.

But it all depends on the situation.