The relationship between depression and weight loss or weight gain is real. Studies continue to connect depression and weight changes. A prominent theme in their findings is that the link between weight and depression is complex. There are reasons why you might gain or lose weight if you are depressed, and those reasons go in both directions—weight issues can worsen depression, and depression can contribute to weight problems. Another important theme is that there are ways you can break the link between depression and weight loss or weight gain and improve both your physical and mental health.

Reasons Why Depression and Weight Gain or Weight Loss Are Connected

The mind and body are connected and function as one whole. They affect each other and move with each other. What happens in your brain impacts your gut and vice versa. Similarly, your own life experiences are processed by not just your brain but by your whole system. This is the fundamental reason for the association between weight loss, weight gain, and depression.

Depression and weight are biological, at least in part. Just two examples of the connection:  

• The neurotransmitter serotonin is important in mood regulation. We think of it as part of the brain’s chemistry, which it is, but did you know that about 90 percent of serotonin is produced in the gut (Stoller-Conrad, 2015)?
• The limbic system in the brain is responsible for both emotion and appetite. This could be a strong reason why depression impacts each. A voracious appetite and a meager one directly affect weight.

Depression isn’t solely biological, of course, so weight changes aren’t either. Other contributing factors to depression and weight loss or weight gain include:

• Change in nutrition. With its lack of energy and interest in doing many things, depression makes healthy cooking and eating difficult. Convenience, packaged, or fast food is much easier but leads to weight gain and impedes the body’s recovery from depression.
• Comfort eating. This is another example of the brain-gut link. Depression makes people crave comfort foods like sugars and fatty foods.
• Lack of sleep. Insomnia is thought to play a role in depression weight loss because the body burns more calories when awake. Significant sleep loss can shed pounds in an unhealthy way.
• Inactivity. Depression causes fatigue, lethargy, and muscle or joint pain, making exercise difficult. Lack of exercise is a contributor to weight gain.
• Restlessness. Depression can also cause agitation and restlessness. The body burns extra calories, and when coupled with poor appetite, weight loss ensues.
• Medication side-effects. Weight gain or, less common, weight loss, is a side effect of some antidepressants.

There are sound reasons why depression weight loss and weight gain happen. That doesn’t mean that they’re inevitable, however, and if you do experience unwelcome weight changes with depression, you can reverse them.

How to Take Care of Depression Weight Gain or Weight Loss

Despite how depression might make you feel about yourself, you are worthy, and you are able. You can empower yourself to take charge of weight changes and depression. As you do, it’s important to think in terms of working on both together. It’s been shown that treating them simultaneously is more effective than addressing just one.

Professional help can be beneficial. Recognizing the legitimate connection, many doctors treat depression and weight together. Primary physicians, therapists, nutritionists, and registered dieticians can all help you be successful—and safe—with your mood and weight goals.

These tips can help your mind and body:

• Make gradual dietary changes, systematically replacing processed and refined foods with whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats (the Omega-3 fatty acids found in sources like salmon, tuna, and avocados).
• Keep healthy, easy foods handy, such as bananas, grapes, cut carrots, granola, and yogurt.
• Increase physical activity. Setting an alarm to sound each hour can remind you to move, if only for a few minutes (ideally outside).
• Use therapy and/or self-help books to change your thoughts and perspectives (cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and positive psychology are all helpful for depression).
• Take medication as prescribed by your doctor.
• Manage stress, as stress affects weight and mood. Use aromatherapy, journaling, laughter, mindfulness, deep breathing, support, and an enjoyable hobby to reduce stress and its effects.

Overall, be gentle and patient with yourself. These are chronic conditions that require a long-term approach that sometimes feels slow and overwhelming. Keep taking positive action every day, and you will make changes happen.

Also, remember to use a holistic approach. Because depression and weight gain or weight loss are complex, there isn’t one single treatment approach that will work alone. Tend to your brain, gut, whole body, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to overcome depression, reach a healthy weight, and live your life fully.

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Using a depression emoji is a way for people to express their depressed mood. For the millions of people with major depression, it can be a challenge to put into words what it feels like to suffer from depression. That’s where the depression emoji comes in. It’s a physical representation of what depression symptoms look and feel like. We can all relate to the feelings that come from a sad face or a crying face.

Depression emojis can also help portray the daily struggle of living with depression. They can be especially helpful in communicating those feelings of depression when others around that person cannot or do not relate to or understand what it is like to feel depressed on a continuous basis. On the other hand, a depression emoji can establish a bond between a person with depression and others who have the same illness. There’s an instant understanding of what the person is going through.

5 Depression Emojis

There are currently over 2,000 different emojis, a number that offers a whole new way for people to communicate what they are thinking and feeling. Of these 2,000 emojis, there are a few that are especially useful for explaining what it is like to live with depression:

1. Zipper-Mouth Face. The zipper-mouth face can be a powerful emoji to express what it is like to suffer from the stigma of depression. Many people are afraid to talk about their depression in fear of facing some sort of reprisal. This depression emoji, by zipping the mouth shut, illustrates the silence that many people who suffer from depression live in, as they go about their lives doing the best they can to manage how they think and feel on their own. Despite the great efforts to spread awareness about depression and mental health, many with depression are afraid of losing friends, family, and their jobs if it becomes known that they have a mental illness. This keeps them living in fear and prevents them from getting the help, support and treatment they need.
    
2. Downcast Face with Sweat. Anxiety often accompanies depression. Anxiety is an emotion that is challenging to cope with, as it causes a great strain on how the symptoms of stress and depression are managed. The more anxious a person feels, the more depressed and hopeless they become. “My life will never get better.”
   
    
3. Unamused Face is a depression emoji that portrays how people who suffer from depression no longer enjoy things that they used to enjoy. When a person suffers from depression, it is hard to feel joy or contentment in things that are fun, enriching or stimulating. Even efforts from friends and family to help the depressed person feel better fall short, which can result in the affected person being isolated or withdrawing from his or her loved ones.
    
4. Face with Head-Bandage. Suffering from depression causes a person’s mind to go in many different directions. It is often difficult to concentrate, focus, and comprehend things that require attention to detail. Depression can result in physical symptoms, like headaches, dizziness, and racing negative thoughts. Ultimately, the face with head-bandage depression emoji represents the pain and dysfunction that occurs in the brain of a person who is affected by depression.
    
5. Crying Face. Depression is most popularly understood as feelings of extreme sadness. What many do not understand is that sadness and crying are only symptoms of depression, and to be sad does not mean to be depressed. A person who suffers from major depression suffers from much more than sadness and equating depression to feeling sad fails to encompass all that it means for a person to suffer from depression. It is important to understand that sadness and crying are symptoms of depression, not what it means to have major depression.

See Also:

Symbols of Depression You May Not Have Thought of Before

Is depression genetic? That is one of the most elusive questions about this complex illness. Many people want to know what causes depression because when we identify a cause, we can target it and block it so we can stop depression long before it starts. Researchers are discovering that, to a limited extent, depression can sometimes be genetic or hereditary.

Currently, there is no definitive answer about the degree to which depression is genetic. This isn’t for lack of research. There are two types of ongoing studies: Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and Gene-Environment Interaction studies (GxE). Over 2,000 GWAS studies alone have been undertaken to uncover the genetics behind major depressive disorder. Countless others have attempted to locate a depression gene and solve the mystery of the cause of depression. To date, the exact nature of the genetic link and genes involved hasn’t been identified.

This doesn’t mean, however, that all these studies have been fruitless. Scientists are learning quite a lot about depression and genetics.

No Depression Gene but Still Genetic Vulnerability

One thing is becoming increasingly clear: It’s unlikely that a depression gene exists. The mental health world was hopeful, as having a single gene (or even a handful of them, which was also studied) would make it easy to test people for depression and could lead to medications for effective treatment, too.

All hope isn’t lost. While the existence of a single depression gene is doubtful, researchers have made great strides in understanding the connection between genetics and depression. It’s known with certainty that numerous genes are involved in depression. Scientists are striving to understand how they work in combination to trigger major depressive disorder.

While there are still many questions, it is becoming increasingly clear that having certain genes makes someone genetically vulnerable to developing depression. Possibly, the more genes linked to depression someone has, the more susceptible they are to the illness.

Depression is Heritable

There is an obvious genetic link to depression. If someone has a first-degree relative (a parent, sibling, or child) with depression, their chances of also developing depression are two to three times greater than someone without a close family member with depression.

Does this mean that depression is hereditary? Not exactly. This illness isn’t passed directly from parents to child the way that certain diseases (such as some cancers or Parkinson’s disease) or even eye color is. Instead, depression is heritable. Heritability refers to the percentage of the total cause of a disorder that is attributed to genetics.

Through twin studies, researchers have determined that the heritability of depression is approximately 40-50 percent (likely higher for severe depression). This means that depression comes from a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Genetics or Epigenetics?

Yes, depression has a genetic component. But as we’ve seen, a specific depression gene probably doesn’t exist. People can have a genetic vulnerability because the illness is heritable, and they can be susceptible to environmental factors, too. Do these two very different causative factors work together?

It seems that genes and the environment do indeed partner up to cause depression. The study of the interaction and how it affects people is known as epigenetics. Epigenetics investigates how factors external to someone can switch genes on and off to influence depression.

An important implication of this is that someone might be genetically vulnerable to depression, but environmental factors (still under investigation) affect whether the genes are turned on, causing depression, or remain off, causing the person to be depression-free.

Major depressive disorder is partially genetic. Heritability, though, isn’t a guarantee that you will develop this illness.  You might have a parent, sibling, or child with depression but not develop it yourself. Also, you might not have depression in your family at all yet live with major depression.

The answer to the question, “Is depression genetic?” is vague. Depression can be genetic, but there are so many complex facets that the specifics are still largely unknown.

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Depression fatigue is an exhaustion like no other. It’s all-encompassing and is almost as if your entire body is fighting hard to sleep no matter what time of day it is or what you are supposed to be doing. If you have depression, chances are high that you will experience this fatigue. Over 90 percent of people with major depression have depression fatigue (Aiken, 2019).

Rest assured, you have the ability to begin to regain your energy starting now. You don’t have to wait for your depression to be gone. And you just might discover that you improve both fatigue and depression as you follow the tips below.

Why Depression and Fatigue Are Connected

There are reasons why nearly everyone who lives with depression is fatigued most of the time. When you understand the causes, you can address them and deal with your exhaustion. Four primary causes of depression fatigue are

• Sleep difficulties
• Diet
• Stress
• Medication

Depression interferes with sleep. Both depression and sleep are brain-based, and neural activity that is off-kilter disrupts normal sleep activity as well as contributes to depression. Hypersomnia (sleeping too much) and insomnia (sleeping too little) both contribute to depression’s fatigue.

Another, lesser-known, sleep problem in depression is sleep inertia. Sleep inertia is a state of grogginess between being asleep and awake. For most people, it lasts mere minutes and isn’t bothersome. For those with depression, though, sleep inertia can last for hours. This means that many people with depression must try to function when their brain isn’t fully awake.

Lifestyle components like diet and stress levels also contribute to both depression and fatigue. The traditionally Western-style diets with red meat, processed and refined foods, and sugars have been implicated in depression (Barhum, 2018). Stress, too, contributes to mood and exhaustion problems. Stress directly impacts brain chemistry, including neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, both of which are associated with mood and energy. Stressful life events also take their toll on mental health and fatigue.

Medication can help improve depression. Unfortunately, fatigue is a side effect of many depression medications. If you suspect that your medication is causing fatigue, you might consider talking to your doctor about changing the dose or the type. Never stop taking any medication on your own because there can be serious withdrawal symptoms in doing so and it can seriously affect your level of depression.

There is good news embedded in each of the causes of depression fatigue. They are all things that you can change to take control over your wellbeing. Not only that, there are other lifestyle components that you can adjust to reduce both depression and fatigue.

How to Fight Depression and Fatigue

When you’re utterly exhausted and experience other symptoms of depression, it is hard to muster the energy to turn things around. It makes sense to need to wait for depression to lift before making changes. However, depression fatigue won’t stop on its own.

You can, however, work with your energy level. Think of this as a gradual, yet powerful, process. Below, you’ll find proven strategies to help both depression and fatigue. You don’t have to do everything at once. Start with one or two items that feel possible (not necessarily easy, for these get easier as you go), do them consistently, and add onto them over time.

These strategies help end depression fatigue. Where do you want to begin?

• Diet. Nutrition is vital to healthy brain functioning. The best foods for fighting depression fatigue are complex carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats (the Omega-3s), and enough vitamins and minerals.
• Eat small meals frequently. This provides steady energy and works with the reduced appetite that often accompanies depression.
• Move. Like eating meals, move frequently but in short amounts. Take short walks, do a brief yoga video, etc.
• Drink water. Staying hydrated is important for energy. Reduce or eliminate caffeine and alcohol, as those zap energy (after the caffeine wears off, fatigue will seem worse).
• Reduce stress. Listening to music, reading, engaging in a hobby, or spending time with someone are just a few examples of ways to relieve stress.
• Improve sleep. Getting seven-to-nine hours of sleep consistently will regulate neural activity that affects depression and sleep. Having a sleep routine that involves unwinding activities helps.
• Get out of bed. Even though it’s hard, getting up and moving in the morning has been shown to reduce depression and make you feel less tired.
• See a therapist. Therapy can help both depression and fatigue by equipping you with skills to deal with both. A special type of therapy called cognitive-behavioral therapy-insomnia (CBT-I) is dedicated specifically to helping people with depression and sleep problems.

Depression fatigue is crushing. You don’t have to let it keep you down, though. Use strategies to deal with both fatigue and depression, and you’ll recover energy and improve your mood.

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There are two types of depression lies. The lies about depression and the lies depression tells you. Both types of depression lies can have a big impact on the person with depression.

Let’s start with lies about depression. These lies can be hurtful and damaging as they distort what depression really is and lead to a misunderstanding of depression, the seriousness of this mental illness and its treatment. Here is one lie: “You are depressed because you are sad. If you do something that makes you happy, then you won’t be depressed anymore.” Despite this popular understanding of what depression is and what causes depression, it’s not the truth. You can read about major depression here.

Depression Lies

There are many other lies about depression that can lead people astray and keep them from getting the professional help they need.

Common lies about depression include:

If you try hard enough to make yourself happy, your depression will just go away.

Depression is a legitimate and diagnosable disorder that millions of people suffer from. If it were as simple as trying hard to be happy and make the depression just disappear, then there wouldn’t be a need to treat depression as a psychiatric disorder. Depression is influenced by a chemical imbalance in the brain, so to consider it a simple disorder that only requires effort to be happy is unreasonable.

If you are depressed that means you are crazy and cannot be trusted.

While we have made great progress with spreading awareness about mental health and depression, there are still people out there who believe that mental illness is the same as being crazy. To be clear, there is no mental health disorder that causes craziness. Depression does not mean someone is crazy and does not mean that he or she is dangerous.

Doctors are puppets of the pharmaceutical companies who only want to get you on antidepressant medication so they can make tons of money off you.

This depression lie is actually dangerous because it keeps people who need depression treatment from getting the help they desperately want and need. In reality, pharmaceutical companies do not dictate what your doctor does. In addition, at least in the United States, there are rules and laws in place which keep the pharmaceutical companies from unduly influencing doctors to prescribe their specific medication.

Years and years of clinical studies have shown that the best treatment for depression is a combination of therapy and antidepressant medication.

Lies Depression Tells You

Now there are the lies that depression tells you. How can depression lie to you? Constant, sometimes obsessive, negative thinking accompanies depression. In fact, it’s a hallmark symptom of depression. Maybe you’ve experienced these dangerous depression lies yourself.

You don’t matter.

When you are depressed, the depression will cause you to think and feel many unsafe and untrue thoughts. As the depression increases in severity, it will cause thoughts and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness and these thoughts will be considered as “truths”. You come to feel like you don’t matter. Of course, this is not true. You matter and there are people who care about you and want to support you.

You are hopeless.

When you are depressed, you feel like you are hopeless and that you will never feel better or recover from the oppressive symptoms of depression. Depression may make you feel this way, but it is not true. The reality is that many people who receive professional treatment for depression do feel better and find significant relief from their depression symptoms. You can too, but you have to take the first step in asking for help. Consider asking a mental health professional or a trusted friend or family member for support while you take the first step toward getting treatment and recovery.

You are a burden to your friends and family.

Family members and friends may not be educated in mental health or depression and are at a loss on what they can do to help. It can be hard for people to empathize with you when they have never felt depressed themselves, but it is important to not mistake misunderstanding with disinterest in supporting you. Depression is not a burdensome disorder, and you are not a burden if you reach out for help and support. It is okay to seek support from friends and family when you are ill and while you are getting the treatment and help you need to feel better and recover from depression.

Why are these depression lies so dangerous? If your depression is telling you that you don’t matter, that there’s no hope in getting better and that you are a burden to those you care about most in your life, then the next lie depression tells you may be: “You are better off dead.” This is why the risk of suicide in so high in people with undiagnosed and untreated depression. The sooner a person with depression gets professional help and treatment, the lower the risk of suicide.

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Depression psychosis is a condition that a person experiences when he or she is severely depressed and comes with a higher risk of suicide.

When a person experiences depression with psychosis, he or she experiences depression's psychotic symptoms. These psychotic symptoms can be dangerous to the health and wellbeing of the affected person and sometimes the people around him or her.

Experiencing depression psychosis is scary for the affected person, along with friends and family. It causes many alarming symptoms and behaviors that are unexpected, erratic, and unpredictable.

What is Depression Psychosis?

Depression psychosis is a form of major depression. Whether a person is being treated or not being treated for depression, if the condition of depression is severe, there is a high risk of experiencing depression psychosis. During these psychotic episodes, the person falls out of touch with reality. This can manifest in different ways, and the symptoms of depression psychosis are very scary to experience.

Symptoms of Depression Psychosis

Depression psychosis causes a person to experience symptoms of a psychotic episode, like:

• Auditory hallucinations (hearing voices)
• Visual hallucinations
• Grandiose thoughts and ideas
• Extreme paranoia
• Delusions of failure, worthlessness, being in extreme danger, or extreme self-shame and guilt
• Impulsive and dangerous behaviors that are out of character for the affected person
• Explosive rage or anger without reason
• Poor hygiene and failure to take care of self

These symptoms can cause an affected person to act out violently toward themselves or others. This is often due to a state of deep confusion and incoherency. Many people who experience a psychotic episode due to depression will end up in the emergency room and be admitted to a psychiatric hospital until stabilized.

Prevalence of Depression with Psychosis

Currently, an estimated 15% of people who suffer from major depressive disorder also suffer from depression with psychotic features. Despite the high prevalence of psychotic features in cases of depression, depression psychosis is often misdiagnosed as schizophrenia.

Symptoms of schizophrenia can be very similar to the symptoms of depression psychosis. A distinguishing feature is that those with psychotic depression usually have hallucinations and delusions that center around their depression, such as feeling like a failure or worthlessness. In schizophrenia, the psychotic symptoms are often bizarre and irrational (“I’m being tracked by the CIA from space.”) and usually have nothing to do with the person’s mood state.

Since the psychotic symptoms may confuse doctors, the psychotic episode in depression can lead to a misdiagnosis. With this misdiagnosis comes incorrect treatment, keeping the person from feeling better from their existing condition of depression.

Depression Psychosis Treatment and Recovery

It is scary to experience depression with symptoms of psychosis, but with proper treatment and monitoring, even people with the most severe cases can be placed on a path toward feeling better. Treatment for depression psychosis may take several months, and typically requires both intensive therapy, medications (usually a combination of antipsychotics and antidepressants) and psychiatric hospitalization and care. If these aren’t effective enough, sometimes electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) will be used.

While it will take time to recover, commitment to feeling better and education about proper coping skills for the existing condition of depression can prevent future psychotic episodes.

Prevention of Depression with Psychosis

Having even one psychotic episode in depression increases the risk that future episodes may occur. The best way to combat depression psychosis is to get the proper depression treatment, stay on it, and learn how to properly manage your depression. Preventing depression from becoming severe minimizes the chances of experiencing a psychotic episode. Depression psychosis is scary, but it is not common in mild to moderate cases of depression.

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Changes in weight can be a symptom of mental illness. Weight loss and weight gain are associated with depression. Moreover, weight gain and weight loss are also associated with some depression medication. When depressed, weight changes may be difficult to fight, but once on the right medication, a healthier weight can be achieved.

Depression and Weight Loss

Weight loss is considered a typical symptom of depression. In the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), weight changes, including weight loss, are one of the possible diagnostic criteria for depression. People with depression often feel too depressed to eat and lose weight. Depression and weight loss may also be linked as a person with depression may feel no pleasure from eating, and thus is less motivated to do it.

Depression and Weight Gain

Weight gain is also a recognized symptom of depression and the DSM-IV-TR lists it as one of the diagnostic criteria. Weight gain may occur because a person with depression is exercising less and eating more in an attempt to comfort themselves. Depression and weight gain may also be linked simply because a person with depression is less likely to participate in any activity requiring energy due to fatigue.

Depression and weight gain are also linked by antidepressants. (read: Antidepressants and Weight Gain – SSRIs and Weight Gain) While no one can predict ahead of time which antidepressant will cause weight gain for any individual, some antidepressants are more prone to weight gain than others. Antidepressants more likely to cause weight gain include:¹

• Tricyclic antidepressants
• Monoamine oxidase inhibitors
• Paroxetine (Paxil)
• Mirtazapine (Remeron)
• Trazodone

A person may also gain weight once a depression subsides if, during the depression, the person had lost weight.

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Teenage depression increases the risk of suicide so it's important to catch depression early and this depression test for teenagers can help.¹Depression in teenagers can be just as serious as depression in adults, with 11% of adolescents having a depressive disorder by the age of 18.

This teenage depression test is designed to indicate whether depression is likely, but no online depression test can replace a formal evaluation by a healthcare professional.

Note: If you feel you may harm yourself or others, do not wait, get help now.

Instructions for the Depression Test for Teenagers

Considering the last two weeks, note whether you would agree or disagree with the following teenage depression test statements:

1. I am sad, depressed or feel like sulking almost every day.
2. I have been in trouble at school.
3. I find schoolwork more difficult than usual.
4. Everything is bad; I see everything in a negative light.
5. Everyone is getting on my nerves; I feel grouchy.
6. I feel like no one likes or understands me.
7. I feel unimportant, worthless.
8. Other members of my family have been diagnosed with depression.
9. I don't find pleasure in anything I used to enjoy.
10. My weight has changed or I'm eating more/less than usual.
11. I can't get to sleep or I feel like sleeping all the time.
12. I feel restless.
13. My whole body feels slow.
14. I have no energy.
15. I constantly think of death or suicide.

Scoring the Depression Test for Teenagers

If you agreed to seven or more of the above teen depression test statements, and these feelings impact everyday life, you may have a depressive disorder. Note this depression test for teens is not designed to indicate other disorders like eating disorders or substance use disorders.

If you suspect you may be depressed or have another mental illness, you should seek the help of a trained health or mental health professional who can medically screen for teenage depression.

See also:

• Depression in Children: Overview of Child Depression
• Recognizing Symptoms of Depression in Teens and Children
• Teenage Depression-Signs, Symptoms, Antidepressants
• Antidepressants for Children: Important Information for Parents
• Depression Treatment Options
• Suicide, Suicide Thoughts, Suicide Attempts

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