depression - physical symptoms?

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Do you feel physically terrible when hit with depression? I tend to feel so unpleasant in my body once I get.depressed that I start worrying I'm I'll.
I feel so exhausted and heavy as well as disoriented and sort of not part of life, like it's too hard to engage and join in. I feel like it's difficult to breathe and my body aches.

Lots of recent scientific work has been done on the link between depression and inflammation in the body. Inflammation is measured by a test called C-Reactive Protein. It seems to be higher in depressed populations, leading some scientists to speculate that we have things back to front - depression is a symptom caused by an inflammatory disease in the whole body, affecting the brain. This is totally opposite to the psychiatric view that the depressed brain has side effects on the body.

my face may eventually hurt or become tired from staring at the wall for too long, i usually do that when i am despondent. for some, those feelings may manifest as some outward illness, yet it has never really happened to me.

i often find it difficult to breathe, also, but i don't notice that this is linked to any sort of depressed feeling. it can happen anytime. stuffy.
and there is a pressure on my throat.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240 ... 1351135910

This article looks at the new theory of depression as a whole body condition.

Last time I felt very bad physically with depression my cat had just been rehomed. This time it's been triggered again by circumstance, so at least in my case it seems certainly to originate from a psychological state.

Loss of beloved animals sure can depress one's spirits, that's for sure.. I am still suffering from the loss of "my boys" late last year. It's the price of love in that case...

When I'm depressed,

- I have no motivation. Eveything is insurmountable.
- I'm super-tired and may not get out of bed.
- I ache all over.
- I'm headachy
- And cranky
- And might eat way to much or the opposite - not eat at all.

Yes, definitely. It's always been a whole body experience for me.

Digestive changes, headaches, aching muscles, psycho-motor retardation or agitation, changed appetite & sleep, poverty of speech, slurred speech, worst in the morning, no motivation etc etc
I agree with Prof Gordon Parker from the Black Dog Institute in that there is a difference between melancholic and non-melancholic depression.

My psych always says that I have classic melancholic depression - in my understanding a more genetically based depression with physical manifestations, especially the psycho-motor stuff. Tends to respond to medication.

Zel.