What Are The Signs Of Depression In Men? 2024

In this article we are going to talk about the what are the signs of depression in Men? Depression is one of the leading issues from which youth as well as adults and even aged people go through. Many people suffer from depression without even knowing that they are going through it and so, they do not seek help for the same. Depression can prove to be distressing or worse life-threatening, if not provided treatment. This is the reason that makes it even more of an important topic to talk about, so that people are more aware than before and are able to read the signs before it becomes fatal. Now to understand it, the first question that arises is, what even is depression?

Depression is a mental disorder that affects your emotions and thoughts and makes you feel a constant sadness and loss of interest in doing anything. Most of the time, it’s causation is ‘Stress’. So, to be able to understand that you are in stress is important. There are two types of stress –

Eustress – This is small stress and is beneficial for you as it helps increase your performance.
Distress – This is the bad stress where you are not able to work at all. This is the kind of stress that can be the cause for depression in you.

We all have our ups and downs in our lives but some people have those downs more, to a point that it results in a disorder in them and talking about it is important as these mental disorders are real and one suffering from it definitely requires treatment and help. Coping with depression consists of two ways , those are,

Avoidance – if you avoid it and think that you don’t have a problem. This could be fatal in the long run.
Approach – you approach the problem head first and try to solve it. This will decrease the stressor and increase your will power to fight with it.

So it’s either you fight or flee from the situation. Fighting can be advantageous as fleeing from it would just make it worse.

About twice as many women suffer from depression than men but the only difference is that women have ongoing relationships than men do and therefore, most of the time, they have someone to talk to. While men tend to feel that they are more masculine, strong and tough and so, they do not seek help for the obvious problems. Many people suffer from depression, yet only a few are able to understand its signs before it gets any worse. Sp below are enlisted signs of depression in men.

10 Signs of depression in Men

Following are the 10 signs of depression in men in detail:

1. Aggression

The basic feelings in depression is frustration and disappointment which leads to constant mood swings and aggression. If you notice yourself or your loved one starting to get aggressive constantly, out of nowhere then it could be a sign that they are depressed. But, obviously, aggression is not the only key to know if you are suffering from depression as it can be as anger can be a result of acute stress that you might be going through. That doesn’t make this point any less important to be ignored while looking for signs of depression.

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2. Sadness

Sadness is the persistent feeling during depression. You start feeling like nothing you can do to make the situation better and start self-loathing. This is because, your thoughts are mostly like- ‘I am a failure’, ‘Nothing good ever happens to me’ and ‘I am worthless’ which can lead to an unhappy feeling. This is a major sign/symptom of depression, both in men and women.

If you notice a sudden change in mood, that is, a constant sad vibes and a lacking in confidence, miserable and overwhelmed behaviour, these can be the signs pointing towards depression. There is a thin line between sadness and depression and that is, sadness in for a shorter period of time and you are able to laugh and be comforted at this point but if you are sad constantly and that you can’t even smile at a joke, let alone laugh, is when you know that it is depression. In this case talking to a friend or a family member helps a lot.

3. Feeling discouraged

Feeling discouraged is a common sign noticed in people suffering from depression. You don’t care anymore about your work, your pastimes, the things you liked to do, social activities, etc. Thoughts like, ‘i can’t do anything’ constantly flash in your mind leading to lack of confidence and will to work which reduces to a point that you might feel discouraged and hopeless. It kills your motivation to a point that you don’t want to do anything. Creating a structured routine and pushing yourself a bit to work can help you here. Although, not everybody is able to make themselves a routine and honestly work on it.

4. Irritability

People who suffer from depression often get irritable at the smallest of things like a teacher swapping their regular seat with someone, people trying to talk to them or any other small changes can discomfort them which leads to an irritable mood. Your tolerance level grows short and you feel like everyone is getting on your nerves, therefore, losing your temper at one point is inevitable. Which leads to violence and you can’t stop yourself from hitting someone.

5. Social isolation

Another sign can be isolation from society and even from your family. You feel like just sitting in your own room without getting disturbed or to be asked to talk with somebody. You feel a strong urge to pull yourself away from others and only keep to yourself. This sign of depression only worsens the situation as you completely shut yourself down to others and do not talk or share your thoughts and feelings with anybody. Socially isolating yourself makes it all the more problematic for others to be able to detect any symptoms so as to help you, this is because people generally mistake social isolation with regular sadness and one wanting some space but rather a sudden isolation can be the biggest sign of depression in men.

6. Suicidal thoughts

Scary but true and very much real that depression makes you suicidal. your constant thoughts are like ‘life is not worth living’ and that ‘people would be better off without me’ which worsens your case and makes you want to take your life. There can also be previous attempts of the same and indirectly or directly talking about how you wanna die and not be around anymore.

7. Alcohol abuse

Another sign is alcohol or any other type of substance abuse. Men mostly turn towards alcohol even when going through minor problems but if the abuse has increased comparatively than the past then it could be a problem. Depression and alcohol abuse are linked in a way that one could be depressed and then might start alcohol abuse or they could already be doing these substance abuse which lead them to depression. The reason for substance abuse in men during depression is that they try to mask the pain they are feeling.

8. High-risk activities

Men are mostly going to engage themselves in risky and reckless activities such as compulsive gambling, dangerous sports, fast driving, unsafe sex etc are all examples of some of the escapist behaviours. This is because you don’t feel like living and so be all reckless and not safe.

9. Change in eating habits

There are only two ways in which your eating habits and those are:

Excessive Eating – That is, gain in appetite which majorly happens with women as they start eating more during depression and unintentionally gains weight.
Loss in Appetite – That is, loss in appetite which majorly happens with men as they start saying ‘no’ to food because they don’t feel like eating much. This results in a sudden and unintentional loss in weight.

This could lead to other physical issues like constant sickness, tiredness, headaches and muscle pains, churning gut, etc.

10. Change in sleeping pattern

And the last we come to the tenth sign of depression in men.

Sleeping patterns are the most vulnerable when it comes to depression, that is, it gets disturbed very easily when you are stressed or depressed. There are only two ways that your sleeping pattern gets changes and that is,

Insomnia – That is you do not sleep at all as your stressors keep you up at night.
Hypersomnia – That is you start engaging in excessive sleep to be able to keep away from others and avoid your stressors.

A change in sleeping pattern can lead to other mental disorders as well. Problems like impaired movements and anhedonia are common in this.

What Are The Signs Of Depression In Men?

What Are The Signs Of Depression In Men?