Differntiating Depression from Laziness

Posted on February 13, 2018

Depression is a debilitating mental illness that often manifests its effects as a lack of motivation to do anything, such as getting out of bed. This is not unlike a bout of laziness, which all of us would have felt before. Unfortunately, without further knowledge either are almost indistinguishable feelings-wise. Depression is one of the most common and debilitating mental illnesses to affect a person, so knowing how to tell between the two can make a huge difference.

So, how do we know if we are just feeling lazy or it's depression? Firstly, the lack of motivation is a telltale sign. More specifically, a person who is lazy is consciously aware that he or she has things that need to be done but chooses not to do it instead. For a person with depression, the issue will not register in their minds, because they'll be busy worrying or thinking about other things. For matters such as cleaning the apartment, this becomes apparent. A person who is lazy would put off cleaning his or her house, but for a depressed person, they would not notice the state of the house at all.

One more important clue is that for depression, it requires the lack of motivation symptoms to last for at least 2 weeks to be regarded as clinically significant, but the same does not apply for laziness. Laziness is usually just a fleeting emotion that could be gone within the day. If you appear to suffer from any signs of depression, you should see a psychologist to get it checked as soon as possible before the situation gets worse.


Category(s):Depression

Source material from PsychCentral