Depression and low mood

Depression is a common but serious mood disorder.

Depression affects people in different ways and can cause a wide variety of symptoms. The symptoms can be emotional, psychological or physical and range from mild to severe.

Symptoms can include:

• Persistent sad, feeling down or ‘empty’ mood
• Feeling hopeless
• Pessimistic outlook
• Feeling irritable or angry
• Feeling guilty, hopeless, or worthless
• Feeling bad about yourself or that you are a failure or have let others down
• Loss of pleasure in things you used to enjoy
• Fatigue
• Difficulty concentrating
• Finding it hard to make decisions
• Feeling restless/fidgety or the opposite moving and speaking so slowly that other people have noticed
• Changes to sleep patterns including trouble sleeping or excessive sleeping
• Appetite and weight changes
• Physical symptoms including headaches or a stomach upset.
• Suicidal ideation
• Self-harm or suicide attempts

Support available: 

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust have produced a range of self-help guides, available to download here.

Living Life to the Full provides lots of different online self-help courses that are highly recommended by mental health professionals, covering lots of different specific topics and groups, including helping you to tackle depression.

Moodgym is another online self-help program designed to help you prevent and manage symptoms of depression/anxiety. The site offers an interactive, online self-help book that teaches skills based on cognitive behavioural therapy.

Depression and low mood can also be treated via psychological therapies. Visit our service lookup here to see if we deliver a talking therapy service in your local area. Alternatively, you can visit the NHS website here and enter your postcode to find your local psychological therapy service.