Hidden depression can be hidden from others—or it can be hidden from ourselves. A young adult with hidden depression may deliberately conceal how they’re feeling for fear of how they’ll be perceived. Or they may think that the feelings will resolve themselves if they can just “fake it ‘til they make it.”
But in other cases, hidden depression can result from a detachment from one’s own emotions and state of mind. Sometimes even the person struggling is unaware of the extent of their own distress, so they don’t receive support or treatment. That’s when hidden depression has the potential to be life threatening.
What Is Hidden Depression?
Hidden depression, also known as smiling depression, walking depression, or masked depression, is marked by an absence of observable symptoms. Considered a form of atypical depression, hidden depression is not formally recognized as a distinct disorder by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
The most characteristic symptoms of depression are an unrelenting feeling of sadness and the loss of pleasure or interest in activities that were once enjoyed. However, people with hidden depression don’t fit this description. From outward appearances, in fact, someone with hidden depression seems to be living a happy and productive life.
8 Signs of Concealed Depression
How to know if someone is secretly depressed? The primary symptoms are the physical complaints and behavioral changes associated with depression. Hidden depression symptoms can include:
Aches, pains or digestive problems that cannot be explained by some other cause
Fatigue or a lack of energy; sleeping too much or too little
Changes in appetite and resulting weight gain or loss
Feelings of heaviness in limbs
Irritability or intense sensitivity to rejection
Difficulties with concentration or memory
Changes in substance use
Thoughts of suicide
Untreated hidden depression can be especially dangerous. That’s partly because it is so easily overlooked or dismissed and thus left untreated. In addition, however, people with concealed depression are typically more functional than those with more typical manifestations of major depression. Hence, they may actually have the energy to follow through with a plan to harm themselves.
If you experience perfectly hidden depression, you don't recognize what's going on as depression. The very idea of you being depressed may seem ludicrous to you. Margaret Robinson Rutherford, PhD, author of Perfectly Hidden Depression
Why Young Adults Are Vulnerable to Secret Depression
Few times in life are as filled with monumental changes as young adulthood. Emerging adults face an intense series of major decisions and life tasks, including:
Choosing a career
Deciding whether or how to invest time and money in education
Establishing independence from family
Forming a friend group
Potentially connecting with a partner
Learning life skills ranging from fitness to finance.
Grappling with these challenging tasks can cause a crisis in confidence and leave young adults feeling vulnerable and out of control. At the same time, this age group often feels intense pressure to appear strong and capable to friends and on social media. This disconnection between our inner and outer worlds—between how we look on the outside and how we feel on the inside—can trigger or exacerbate hidden depression.
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