I feel like I’m depressed but I don’t have symptoms of disturbed sleep or loss of appetite. Am I just being pathetic?

You are not being pathetic! Not everyone who is depressed have those symptoms. You could very well have depression but I would do more research or talk to a doctor about other mental illnesses as well, you never know until you speak up!

Hey..., I may not know you, but you are far from pathetic. Disturbance in sleep or appetite can be symptoms to quite a lot of things. Depression, yes, has those as symptoms..., but mainly feeling extremely unmotivated. Feeling overly sad. Not really wanting to do stuff you once were interested in. This could be hobbies, work, or just in general anything you usually do.

It is important to take the way you're feeling seriously even if you don't experience all of the symptoms of depression. Depression can vary from person to person. If you feel like what you are experiencing is having a negative effect on your life it may be time to seek help.

We use terms like depression as a bite-sized catch-all to help usefully explain experiences and feelings to ourselves and others around us, to maximise understanding and empathy and to create realistic goals for managing and curing mental disease that can be replicated across the board. Depression is, first and foremost, a emotional and attitudinal problem, characterised by a lack of interest and enjoyment in otherwise enjoyable and engaging activities, suicidal thoughts/ideation, and a feeling of hopelessness. I never had all of the symptoms of depression, and after many years of learning to manage it, I found that I lacked pretty much all the symptoms apart from a few core ones. Similarly, I say I have depression but I do not feel the symptoms all the time. All of this is because mental illness is not as clear-cut as we would perhaps want it to be. The check-list of depression is a list to aid understanding and to help overworked doctors make quick diagnoses so you can be helped sooner. It's also there to aid you in feeling more 'legitimate' in your own illness - bear in mind that people who meet every criteria in the list can and do feel that they're secretly faking it and are also being pathetic. This checklist, of course, have it's drawbacks. If you know you feel different than you used to feel, even if it isn't the classic, popular view of 'depression', then all that matters *you* know something is wrong, and you are welcome to categorise that experience as a problem, and you are welcome to seek help for it. We as a society are gradually beginning to understand that mental illness is not simply a matter of internal turmoil. It is greatly affected by, and perhaps even caused by, the environment around us. Mental illnesses can have difference prevelancy rates in different cultures, for example. So, there is no reason to think of yourself as pathetic, regardless of how severe your depression may be. (Also, for the record, I've never had the symptoms of disturbed sleep or loss of appetite either, and I'm diagnosed with depression. So just in case you didn't want to read all of that, you can read this bit and feel assured).

Depression can have different symptoms for different people. You aren't being pathetic. Self-deprecation is a symptom of depression. Not everyone reacts to depression the same way. Some people with depression cope by overeating or working all the time. If you think you might be depressed, consider seeing a therapist. It seems like you're downplaying your emotions and symptoms but during therapy you might find that your depressed feelings are having more of an impact on your life than you thought. Depressed or not, be kind to yourself because you are doing the best you can. Good luck and stay safe.