21 Symptoms of depression and how to reduce it

What is depression?

Before I explain to you what depression is, let me share that this blog is written for those who are genuinely willing to overcome depression on their own. I have been treating depression patients for 25+ years. I have personally counselled thousands of people in depression with integral psychotherapy. 

If you really want to experience happiness and learn how to end your struggle to come out of depression then read further with an open mind. I know you might be feeling scared and insecure but it's okay. You are not alone in this journey. I am with you. 

Now let me tell you in the most simple way without using any jargon about depression. Understand that depression is a condition. It is not a disease. It is a mental condition which also has an impact on your body and emotions. 

Many people have been asking on the internet if depression is curable and my simple answer is - yes it is. However, every simple answer comes with profound steps to follow with sincerity. If you want a guarantee from me I can assure you about it because I have treated thousands of patients in my 25 years of practice. 

The only difference between those people who do not come out of depression and those who come out of depression is sincerity, willingness and following the treatment process which was prescribed. My preference is always towards a non-medicinal approach. No medicine, no side effects. 

But in many cases like those who have entered major depressive disorder or bipolar depression, yes medicine may play some role. However, no medicine can give any guarantee that it will cure depression. Why? Because depression is a mental health condition and to overcome it one needs to work with mind, emotion and body; all the 3 levels.

Only eating pills will never help at all. You may be going on and on eating pills for 10, 20, 30 years but are you out of depression? If not, then you have the answer now that medicines are a temporary support system. Without your sincerity, willingness and practice you won't be able to come out of depression.  

Now you know what depression is and what you will need to overcome it. Let us move forward and understand why one gets depressed.

Why does a person enter into depression?

As I mentioned earlier I will try to avoid all the jargons because there are changes of misinterpretation and misunderstanding things. In most of the depression cases that I have handled, I have understood that most of my patients were aware why they have entered into depression. 

You might also be aware of your reason why you have entered into depression. Now a person enters into depression for various reasons. It could be a breakup or loss of a loved one. It could be loss of job or business. 

Reasons could vary including social, financial, natural calamity, relationship, health etc. Many people went into depression because they failed in some exams. Some people get into depression due to medical conditions they might have been facing i.e. major surgery.

There are other kinds of people who enter into depression. However, that depression has a direct connection with their spiritual growth. I have given in depth explanation about this in my ebook Depression - The spiritual sign of enlightenment.

So you see there are numerous reasons why one enters depression. However, if you closely observe, it is still a condition at mental and emotional level. Too many thoughts are attacked and negative emotions are triggered; this causes depression. 

Till now we have understood what depression is and why one becomes depressed. Now we will start learning about the symptoms of depression.

Symptoms of depression at 3 levels

There are 3 levels where you can observe these symptoms - emotion, mind and body. I have segregated these symptoms into 3 levels because it will be much easier for you to deal with it. Also when you will start your depression treatment or if you already are going through your treatment then it will be much easier for you to recognise the symptoms and reduce it. 

Let me reassure you by taking an excerpt from WHO website, “Psychological treatments are the first treatments for depression. They can be combined with antidepressant medications in moderate and severe depression. Antidepressant medications are not needed for mild depression.”

The first preference is psychological treatment. I know many of my patients when they met me for the first time they said to me, “please give me some medicine or a shortcut to come out of depression as fast as possible.” This is not only my experience but the majority of the doctors are facing this challenge where patients want a shortcut and asking for medicine. 

I will share with you a profound observation. I am an advisor of Yaha Life. Our team has started this campaign to help people overcome depression on their own since Oct 2021. To spread the word we have used google ads as one of the mediums to reach people. 

I am sharing data that will give you insights on how many people have visited us from October 2021 to May 2023. We got 1.54M impressions from which 188K people have clicked our campaign on depression treatment.

And I know these numbers are going to increase as currently in India there are 50M depression cases. The challenge India and most of the countries in the world are facing is about the solution for depression. In India there is 1 mental health practitioner (psychiatrist / psychologist / psychotherapist / counsellors) against 100K cases.

One has to take the lead to enter into self help treatment. Team Yaha has been doing research on creating a self help solution since June 2021 under my guidance. So far we have conducted overcome depression campinars and events where 300+ people have participated and have experienced the depression treatment which I have shared with them.

Apart from that 100+ people have taken counselling from me during this period related to their depression issue. During that phase we also launched an online depression test which was given freely with anonymous options to understand how many people are in depression.

I completely understand that you want to keep yourself safe and maintain privacy about your situation. I respect this a lot and hence this test was done with the intention to help people who were in depression. Around 35K people have done this test and you will be shocked that 27K people were in depression. It's a huge number.

I want to assure you that depression is curable if you are willing to cure it. And your willingness has to work at 3 different levels - emotion, mind and body.

Antidepressants mostly work at body level and that too for a very limited time period. Plus it also comes with side effects so one has to be careful before taking any antidepressants without any consultation. I will never advise you to take any antidepressants on your own. You must contact a mental health expert or in your words depression doctor who will help you to overcome depression. If your doctor prescribes any antidepressants, only then you can take that.

Well my friend now what about your emotion and mind level? There are no pills for it. Hence counselling and other forms of therapies come into the picture. I will remind you one more time that depression is just a condition and not an illness. This condition is influenced by the mind, it impacts your emotion which disturbs your body alignment.

Therefore you have to work on all the 3 levels if you really want to overcome depression. I will show you all the symptoms related to all these 3 levels and then we will see how to reduce these symptoms.

So are you ready? If yes then smile. Be relaxed and read further.

7 Symptoms of depression at emotion level and how to reduce it

For the past 25+ years I have handled cases of depression. Hence, when I am sharing anything with you it is coming from a high level experience and not just a therapy.

Even if you will study ICD10 code for depression, you will find the same. The symptoms of depression at emotion level are:

1. Persistent feeling of sadness.
2. Feelings of worthlessness.
3. Feelings of loneliness.
4. Anxiety.
5. Stress.
6. Absence of pleasurable feelings.
7. Feelings of insecurity, self-pity and being a victim of circumstances or betrayal in relationships.

So my friend now you see this is how your emotions are impacted. Your mood swings are part of these. During depression your emotions are haywire. This is one of the biggest reasons people are looking for shortcuts to come out of depression and hence they end up consuming antidepressants or sleeping pills or other drugs or start consuming lots of alcohol.

These are not the solutions for depression at all. You will end up with more issues at physical, mental and emotional level. Plus you are not only at loss of your health but also money too.

Do you think everything comes free? No, my friend alcohol or drugs or antidepressants or sleeping pills costs a lot. Why do you want to waste your or your families hard earned money on such things?

This is one of the reasons me and my team have spent 10000+ hours in research and development of a self help solution for depression to help you overcome depression on your own and that too without medication.

We developed a self help depression treatment which becomes supplementary to any antidepressant or medicine one is intaking. There is no medicine and hence no side effects.

This treatment is divided into 3 parts - emotion treatment, mind treatment and body treatment. Yes my friend you have to treat all these 3 levels if you are genuinely willing to get rid of depression.

To reduce these symptoms of depression at emotion level you need to take 2 steps. One in the morning as soon as you wake up and one at night before sleep. I call this “emotion treatment” which is part of depression treatment.

When you login to our 45 days self help depression treatment webapp you see 4 steps. From this step 1 and step 4 covers the emotion treatment. One of the most powerful ways to handle emotion is music. Yes my friend music has a great therapeutic impact on emotions, preferably when music therapy is used.

You will find many studies and evidence on music therapy across the globe. I don't have to convince you regarding the therapeutic impact of music. Team Yaha is blessed with such experts who have 35+ years of experience in music therapy.

The 2 steps that I have mentioned for your emotion treatment consist of healing music. You don't have to do anything, just plug your earphones in and listen to this music every morning and night at least for 45 days.

This healing music has been tested with 100K people across India, UK and USA. I am sharing this because you must know that many people have asked me what is the difference between this music and the music available on youtube for free.

There are two types of music, one which is for entertainment and one which is designed with a special process for therapy. And that is the difference my friend between freely available music on the internet and this music.

This music is not created for entertainment. Also its creation is solely for therapeutic purpose hence specific raga, frequencies and instruments are used in its creation. Plus it has been given to 100K patients which has generated positive results.

Therefore, my friend, the healing music step 1 and step 4 in emotion treatment is like your magic wand. Listen to it for 45 days and experience it yourself.

When you listen to healing music you will find that in less than 180 seconds your feel good factor is activated. You will feel more relaxed. When you continue this treatment for 45 days you will observe a high level positive impact on your emotions. And this is how you can easily reduce the symptoms of depression at emotion level.

Now let us understand mind level symptoms.

7 Symptoms of depression at mind level and how to reduce it

My friend, the mind is a monkey and the monkey needs training. When the mind is influenced with too many negative thoughts it creates a pattern. The negative thoughts may have been triggered due to some negative life situation.

During depression 10000+ negative thoughts attack which creates a loop of anxiety, stress and overthinking. This is called the depression loop. No pills can break this loop. Until you begin to start taking action at the 3 levels as mentioned earlier.

The following are the symptoms of depression at mind level:

1. Do not feel like communicating with anyone.
2. Overthinking.
3. Negative thoughts.
4. Lack of concentration in studies or work.
5. Psychomotor retardation (Slow speech, decreased movement and dullness of mental faculties)
6. Frequent usage of “I can’t” statements.
7. Loss of interest in activities.

There are 2 types of thoughts - positive and negative. When you entertain positive thoughts it influences your brain centre called hypothalamus. Thoughts and emotions are connected with electromagnetic waves which triggers hypothalamus to create specific chemicals to secrete in the body.

These chemicals are based on your emotions. If you have anxiety emotion then your brain centre will release anxiety chemical and it will spread in every cell of your body. If it is a fear emotion then you have fear chemicals in the body.

That is why most antidepressants are filled with artificial chemicals which increase serotonin or dopamine levels in the brain. This creates a temporary feel good factor but later on when the chemical is subsided you are back to square. In fact in many cases I have observed that there are high levels of side effects.

If you train your mind to entertain positive thoughts then you will have positive emotions triggered. With positive emotions you will experience that your brain centre has released positive chemicals such as dopamine or serotonin naturally and organically. These chemicals elevate your feel-good factor.

So to reduce the symptoms of depression at the mind level, we have given step 3 as Mind Treatment in our 45 days self help depression treatment webapp. Once again you do not have to do anything, just use your earphones and start the play button. All instructions and benefits of this step are given in the webapp.

Negative thoughts can be reduced when you induce positive thoughts consciously. Negative thoughts are increased when you ignore positive thoughts and allow negative thoughts to enter into your overthinking zone. That’s why in ancient India the yogi’s and rishis created a system called mantra.

Mantra means that you do it within your mind. Mann means mind and antar means within. In modern language you are familiar with the term affirmations. Whether music therapy or affirmations, both are evidence based. Remember that.

Many of my patients have complained to me that they had done affirmations but have no result or negative result. You have to understand that when you repeat anything in your mind it will create a pattern based on your emotion.

Therefore, when you repeat a positive statement in your mind but you have negative emotion then for sure you will end up with a negative result. If you repeat “I am healthy” for 1000 times but inside you have an emotion of doubt and cynicism then you will end up being unhealthy.

This is how affirmations work my friend. When our research team visited one of the hospitals to test music therapy on patients they tried a new variation with more than 500 patients. This brought new insight to the team and that's how double induction affirmations were created using music therapy as a base while recording affirmations.

Yes I know your question: what is this double induction? My friend, it is an ancient method where healers used to treat patients with various sounds, tones, words, mantras and specific sentences. Two healers used to sit near the patient, one on the left side and another on the right side of the ear.

Then one healer used a specific sound, tone or sentence while another healer used a different tone, sound etc. Various permutations and combinations were done during this process as 2 healers were working on one patient. This is termed as the double induction method.

When you continue affirmations for 45 days you will experience a great shift in your thinking patterns. You will also observe that because of the double induction effect and music therapy base your subconscious mind creates a protection system. When any situation comes to you, due to this protection system you will be confident enough to handle it with ease.

Therefore, these affirmations are very different from what is available freely on youtube. You will observe a high level of therapeutic impact while listening to these affirmations. So login to your account on depression treatment webapp and take your steps to overcome depression.

You have now learnt emotion and mind level symptoms and how to reduce it. Now, I will explain to you body level symptoms and how to reduce it.

7 Symptoms of depression at body level and how to reduce it

Depression has a tendency to bring inertia in your body. This reminds me of Arjuna who experienced depression on the battlefield. Imagine a healthy, skillful and most positive human experiencing depression?

What happened to Arjuna suddenly that he entered into depression? If you observe closely you will find this pattern. He asked Lord Krishna who was his charioteer to place his chariot in the middle of the battlefield.

When he was in the middle of the battlefield his mind started giving him all the old memory flashes. Hence, the mind activated all kinds of thoughts which triggered negative emotions in him. These negative emotions created negative chemicals in his body and he entered into depression.

That's why if you read Bhagavad Gita chapter 1 verses 28 to 31, Arjuna says that his mouth is dried up, limbs have become weak and entire body is shuddering. How is it possible that such a strong person, who had a specific workout routine everyday, healthy eating habits, positive attitude towards life and had great achievements, he suddenly becomes weak on the battlefield itself?

This is how the mind and emotions influence your body. Here are all the symptoms of depression at the body level:

1. Tiredness.
2. Loss of energy throughout the day.
3. Weakness.
4. Pain in the body.
5. Loss of appetite or craving for food.
6. Weight loss or weight gain.
7. Loss of sexual drive.

The message is very simple. Even if you have achieved everything in life, you eat every kind of healthy food and people respect you for your skills & expertise, until you do not train your mind and channelise your emotions there is no guarantee that you will not enter into depression.

I will repeat again that if you really want to protect yourself from entering into symptoms of depression you must work at all 3 levels. Body level is also important because it is tangible and can easily be trained in comparison to mind. To train your mind you may require lots of effort but body training is much easier.

Body starts losing its energy when the mind and emotions are negative. When the body needs energy it will start seeking something for consumption. Most of the time one ends up eating junk food and at times overeating.

In many cases one leaves food, one enters into fasting. This fasting never helps during depression because it creates more weakness and lethargy in the body. Fasting in India is considered one of the most powerful processes to expand one's consciousness. However, fasting with such intention is different from fasting out of the feeling of sadness, grief and loneliness.

Therefore, both overeating and fasting increases toxins in the body. When one is in depression one has to start detoxification of the body. Emotions need to be released, mind needs to be trained and body needs to be detoxified. These are the 3 essential things if you really want to come out of depression.

If you are in depression for a prolonged period it means you have not worked on all the 3 levels. It’s never too late. Start now. Within a few weeks and months you will observe a positive shift within you.

To reduce symptoms of depression at body level follow step 2 given in the webapp for the next 45 days. It will help you to detoxify your body and slowly you will regain necessary energy which you need in life to move forward.

Now you have learned 3 treatments that you have to undergo as part of depression treatment. Emotion treatment, mind treatment and body treatment.

Let me share a real story which will surely inspire you to overcome depression.

How can meditation help you to reduce symptoms of depression?

So far you have learnt to recover yourself from body, mind and emotion level symptoms of depression. Now I am going to tell you something more profound. Read this carefully.

Meditation is now accepted as a universal method that brings wellbeing naturally. It has no connection with any religion or dogmas.

I would like to share a little excerpt from National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH), “A 2018 NCCIH-supported analysis of 142 groups of participants with diagnosed psychiatric disorders such as anxiety or depression examined mindfulness meditation approaches compared with no treatment and with established evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy and antidepressant medications."

If you still need more scientific evidence you must read wikipedia on the effects of meditation. If you are from India then I am sure you don’t need any evidence related with meditation, you must be fully aware of its power.

So my friend, how can meditation help you during the time of depression? Well, when you sit down or lie down for meditation it begins by calming down your body level, reaching to mind level and slowly emotions are balanced automatically.

Especially guided meditation has this impact. While I had been counselling people who were in depression I used to guide my patient to enter into meditation. This guided meditation helped all my patients to increase their calmness at body, mind and emotion levels.

Many of my patients had requested me to record it and share with them. Recently with the 45 days self help depression treatment webapp the new feature of guided meditation was launched. I have recorded this guided meditation in all the 3 languages English, Hindi and Gujarati.

You can access it from the webapp. Let me repeat that depression is curable and to overcome depression I have shared everything that is possible for you to do on your own. All necessary tools I have shared that will help you to reduce the symptoms of depression. Now do not wait for any more confirmations.

You may go on and on searching on google whether depression is curable or not. But here I have shared all the necessary evidence with you. As a doctor I can only say that yes depression is for sure curable but are you willing to cure? This question is very important for you to answer.

So begin your depression treatment and come out of depression. Let me share a real story which will surely inspire you to overcome depression.

Success story

Well, my friend, I have thousands of stories to share with you when it comes to depression. My patients are the anchors of these success stories. But I cannot share all the stories right now. Let me share at least 1 recent story which will surely inspire you to overcome depression on your own.

My first story is a recent one. It's a direct experience from a person who has used the 45 days depression treatment webapp. Respecting the privacy of an individual I won't be sharing the name here. However, what is more important for you is positive inspiration.

One afternoon I received a call from my teammate asking me that there is a person who has purchased the depression treatment webapp and it's been 10 days since she is not feeling good at all. She has not even logged in to the webapp. She just wants to talk to you directly.

As I am in this field I know what people go through. Hence, I asked my teammate to arrange an online meeting with the person. Time and online meeting links were shared to her but she didn’t turn up in the meeting.

After 4 days she again called back and apologised for not turning up. She requested another time and day. One more time the meet was set and she again didn’t turn up. I have created a specific routine in my life that whosoever has come to me for such help I will always keep that person in my wellbeing prayers.

Hence, I prayed for her wellbeing. 10 days passed by and there was a whatsapp message on our helpline from her that she is feeling much better. She started using our depression treatment webapp.

After 45 days we received the following message from her:

“Hi Dr. Jani and Yaha Team. I am so sorry for not showing up in 2 meetings which were fixed for me. I was very down. I lost my loved one. I was unable to digest this fact at all. I wanted to talk with someone and hence I took all the courage and called you.

But I was unable to join the meeting. Grief and guilt were eating me up. I didn't have any strength to meet anyone. But then my friend said that at least you login to that webapp and tryout. I was not in the mood for anything.

My friend asked me for the user and password. She insisted that I must at least try something. She logged in and saw the webapp. She read the guide aloud and then asked me if I was ready to take the steps.

Honestly I was not ready for anything. Then she said ok let's take any steps. Let's try some resources. She opened resources and saw brain teasers. She opened one video and watched it. She said that it's just a 40 seconds video. She showed me the video, but I reluctantly watched it.

She started trying that brain teaser hand brain coordination exercise. I saw her doing something and I told her to stop. But she was so adamant and asked me to rewatch the video and try the exercise.

We both rewatched it and tried it. I tried it and failed. But surprisingly upon failure I laughed and she also laughed. Few minutes we tried various brain teasers. I felt much better. This is how I started using your depression treatment webapp.

I read all the instructions in step 1 to 4. I followed it everyday. I told my friend to be with me and help me if I don't follow any steps. I am feeling much better now. Before using this webapp I visited a doctor and I was diagnosed with depression.

Doctor prescribed me antidepressants. Asked me to take it regularly. I was more afraid and hence I didn’t turn up in the second meet too. I was in dual mind whether to take the pills or not. I wanted a second opinion and that’s why I thought to ask Dr. Jani. But I was so afraid.

My friend told me to continue with the webapp and do all the steps. After 10 days I was better hence I wrote to you. But today I am feeling much better. I took medicines for a week and then went back to the Doctor.

Doctor was surprised to see that I was smiling and on this progress my dosage was reduced. But today it's been a month since I am out of pills. I also wanted to share the good news with you that I finally went for a job interview and I got selected.

I had so much guilt that I did not turn up in 2 meetings hence I am writing this. You have been a saviour in my life. I am grateful to Dr. Jani and team Yaha for developing this powerful depression treatment webapp.

If possible forgive me and give me one more chance to meet Dr. Jani. I have so much to tell her which I cannot put in words here.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Your reluctant patient”

I hope that today after reading this story you will have some strength to work on yourself. Self help is the best help, remember that. The self help webapp that is researched and developed is a great tool for you that will support you in your journey.

You are not alone at all. I am with you and with me you have this powerful tool. Use it and come out of depression.

Conclusion

In this article - 21 symptoms of depression and how to reduce it you have understood that depression is not a disease but it is just a condition. Various life situations make a person enter into depression. Symptoms of depression are at 3 levels: body, mind and emotion.

To reduce these symptoms one has to work at all the 3 levels. It may take a minimum of 45 days to reduce depression symptoms. However, consistent effort will bring positive results.

Researched and developed 45 days self help depression treatment webapp has all the necessary steps and resources that will help you reduce the symptoms of depression at body level, mind level and emotion level.

Here is a chart that I have compiled for you so you can help yourself to overcome depression.

If you have any questions or if you want to share your experience after reading this blog on 21 Symptoms of depression and how to reduce it, use the comment section below.

I pray for your wellbeing.