Everyone feels sad, anxious, or stressed sometimes. It’s part of life. But how do you know if the negative feelings you’re experiencing are just part of being human or if they’re something more?
Your body is incredibly intelligent and will display warning signs that things aren’t okay and you need to take care of yourself. Even though your body is very intuitive, it can be easy to miss these warning signs and brush them off as something that doesn’t need to be dealt with.
Almost one in five adults in the US lives with a mental illness. And while mental illnesses can be treated and managed, it’s much better to recognize you’re not doing okay and find a solution before you develop a chronic condition.
If you’ve been feeling a little out of sorts recently, take a look over these symptoms. If you’ve been experiencing more than one of them on a regular basis over the last few months, you may not be doing as well as you think. It could be time to reach out and talk to a professional.
1. Feeling anxious
It’s normal to feel worried before something nerve-wracking like a job interview or a test. But these feelings become a cause for concern when they affect your everyday life. If you struggle to do ordinary day-to-day things that others rarely have difficulties doing because you’re so worried, you may have anxiety.
Anxiety isn’t just defined by being worried. It comes with other symptoms, too. Being short of breath, experiencing heart palpitations, regular headaches, feeling dizzy, being restless, and suffering from regular constipation or diarrhea can all be signs of problem anxiety.
2. Being depressed
In a world in which one bad thing seems to happen after another, it can be difficult to not feel sad. But just like being worried and being anxious are two different things, being sad and being depressed are also vastly different.
Depression is characterized by a number of factors. If you’ve been feeling sad or lonely every day for weeks, you could be depressed. No longer finding joy in things you used to love, suffering from a lack of energy and motivation to do anything, and struggling to determine a cause for your feelings are all signs of depression.
3. Sleeping problems
When we’re not feeling ourselves, one of the first things to change is often our sleeping patterns. If you’ve noticed you’ve been sleeping for hours more than usual and you still feel groggy throughout the day, it could be your body giving you a warning sign. Similarly, if you’re struggling to sleep at all no matter how tired you are, this could also be a way of your body trying to give you a message.
Sleeping too much on a regular basis is often a sign of depression, while struggling to get enough sleep could be a sign of anxiety. If your sleeping pattern doesn’t return to normal after a few weeks, it’s worth getting checked out.
4. Emotional outbursts
Everyone has a different default mood and it’s common for these moods to change. For example, if you’re on vacation you’re likely to feel happy and upbeat, while if you’ve just broken up with your partner, it’s normal to experience a sense of grief. When you’re happy you may get excited more easily and laugh more, while when you’re grieving you may feel depressed and cry frequently.
Drastic mood changes and emotional outbursts are normal when there’s a reason behind them. But if you lash out at others in anger or find yourself in floods of tears for no real reason, there may be an underlying problem that needs to be dealt with.
5. Becoming withdrawn
We all have different ideas when it comes to socializing. Some people want to surround themselves with their friends all the time, while others prefer to spend most of their time alone and only see friends now and again. Both are totally normal and valid types of socializing.
No matter how much you socialize with others, if you start withdrawing from friends and family and actively avoid social situations, it may be a sign that something isn’t right. Spending significantly less time with people whose company you used to enjoy could be a sign of depression, bipolar disorder, or another kind of mental health issue.
Is it time to reach out?
It’s okay to feel sad, anxious, or stressed from time to time. But when these feelings take over and become defining characteristics of who you are, it’s time to act. Whatever you’re currently going through and however you’re feeling, we’re here to help.
Schedule your first appointment today and one of our Cyti therapists will work with you to discover the reasons behind the way you’re feeling. Often you’re too close to your own situation to see things from a new perspective. Your therapist will work with you to get to the root of your problems and help you develop the skills and techniques needed to successfully manage your symptoms.
About the author: Theresa Boswell
Theresa is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I relocated to California after a short period in Kansas in 2016. Growing up in a large family has allowed her to develop unique experiences that she draws from to foster resilience and growth in her patients.
She has over 20 years of experience in counseling and in the field of social services. She has recently been a leader with Federally Qualified Health Care (FQHC) systems leading change within Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH) environments. She received my education from the University of Wisconsin’s educational system, with obtaining her master’s in Social Work from UW-Madison and her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from UW-Milwaukee.
