Today is National Depression Screening Day, so it’s time for your annual depression checkup. Are you depressed? Or are you skirting the threshold of depression, feeling low on energy and taking little pleasure out of life?
You don’t need to make an appointment or go see someone in person in order to find out the answer to these questions. Since 1995, Psych Central has offered an online interactive depression test that gives you an instant result. While nobody can diagnose a mental disorder online, it can give you a quick sense of whether it’s something to be concerned about and make an appointment with a mental health professional to examine further.
The quick depression test is just 8 questions and is an accurate screening measure for depression. It takes most people less than a minute to complete. The longer 18-question depression quiz is the oldest one online and is a more thorough screen for depressive symptoms. It’s a little more accurate, and most people complete it in under 3 minutes.
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Site last updated: 25 May 2012
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Your analogy about not treating depression being like not treating a broken leg may make sense, but when it comes to insurance, employment etc are they viewed the same? At a time when employers are clearly discriminating, including against being unemployed, can a diagnosis of depression become known to the employer- say through the required pre-employment medical exam?
As for insurance, yes, it’s supposed to be treated the same way now with the mental health party act finally in place. If it’s not, then your insurer may be unlawfully discriminating against you.
As for employers, they also are forbidden by law to discriminate based upon a mental health concern. This doesn’t stop them from doing so, however, so it’s best to tread carefully when seeking employment and acknowledging past mental illness. Unless the job specifically calls for it in some manner, I place such knowledge squarely in the “none of your business” category.
It’s such a shame that anti-depressants take so long to work because they are so effective. Psychotherapy does a lot so I hope that many people who read your blog do take that step towards getting treatment. Getting that therapy as you wait for the medication and of course, once the medication works, will really help you start feeling like yourself again. You’ll feel as though that gray haze over you has lifted. But if you stop the therapy and/or medication, without doctor recommendation, it may all come back… Depression is so common and so treatable. Get help…you deserve it after all that you’ve felt. Thanks for allowing me to speak.
Marcelina, what proof do you have that antidepressants work long term? I haven’t seen any studies that prove their effectiveness in the long run.
The one study that allegedly proved this, the Star D study, was shown to be fraudulent on the 1Boring Old Man blog which is run by a retired psychiatrist.
http://tinyurl.com/6hxk6db
And what you describe as depression coming back by stopping the medication actually many times are due to withdrawal symptoms thanks to a way too fast tapering schedule. But I digress.
Anyway back to the topic – Obviously depression shouldn’t be minimized. But my concern is that these types of screenings do nothing to discriminate between someone who is depressed due to life circumstances vs. the person who may have a true clinical depression even if life is great.
It also does nothing about encouraging people to have a medical evaluation for conditions that may be mimicking depression such as sleep apnea. By the way, I know of people who were misdiagnosed but can’t get off the AD they shouldn’t have been on in the first place due to horrific withdrawal symptoms.
Finally John, I wanted to respond to this:
“As for the prejudice or stigma that sometimes accompanies treatment of mental health concerns, by seeking treatment, you’re helping to reduce that prejudice. People will stop treatment mental health concerns as something different when more people acknowledge their battles (just as has been done with cancer). ”
In light of how tough it is to find a job under normal circumstances, do you seriously expect people to disclose anything that could jeopardize their job prospects?
Also, as a former mental health consumer, I felt that when I had that MI label, I was taken less seriously by the medical profession. Everything I said was seen through the label.
When I now see a new doctor, I never disclose my previous psych med history. That is reality.
“Some common reasons people don’t seek out treatment for depression are cost, stigma or prejudice, and fear of what it might mean.”
forget about cost for a second and lets talk about stigma and prejudice those two word imply that people don’t know enough about anti depressants to make an informed decision. do you really think that is true. I’m an alcoholic 5 years ago i went to my doctor for help quitting and she said she wanted to treat the underlying cause and handed me so good old S.S.R.I’s just like that i took them three times realized that they were just another thing to get hooked on and disposed of them. the point being doctors hand out anti depressants like candy everyone has either been on them or knows some one who is. there is no prejudice there they are addictive that is a fact. they can make the problem worse that is a fact. they don’t fix the problem they bandage it that is a fact. people or often prescribed them with out any definitive testing. that is a fact so what you call prejudice i call common knowledge and what you call stigma i call reality.