Having no energy to brush your teeth, then needing fillings each time you go to the dentist

Getting knots in your hair from not brushing it for days

Needing assistance to make even the smallest of decisions

Turning into a vampire where you’re up at night then sleep all day. Then getting a vitamin D deficiency which further feeds your depression

Getting chronic headaches and other unexplained ailments

Living off frozen meals, if you even have an appetite

Being an emotional equivalent of a third degree burn victim, where any little thing that goes wrong feels catastrophic

Constantly losing things as your house is a mess and your memory is shit

Sneezing from the dust which has collected on shelves

Never touching your mildewed curtains

The highlight of your day is bedtime and the low light is waking up

Replacing real life with the virtual world

Wanting to cry but the tears won’t come

Having no hobbies

Feeling angry all the time

Blaming yourself for everything

Praying that you’ll finally die

Every day is like running a marathon. Everything requires a superhuman level of effort and you’re ready to collapse

Dodging awkward questions such as “What do you do?” as you’re so depressed you can’t work

Staying in your PJs every day

Letting the phone ring out as you have no energy to socialise

Ignoring messages, letting friendships drop away, then getting sad when no one wishes you a happy birthday

Being told “you look well” because you’ve become so good at hiding your depression, and realising you are all alone in this

There is nothing romantic about clinical depression.