Depression crawls up silently on you. You do not know when it will attack and so the necessity for recognizing it at its initial stage is extremely important. Early treatment and specific action to relieve stress from your life style are the best remedies.

It is essential that you come to grips with the fact that depression, if not treated at an early stage, can come to stay forever and gradually invite some other mental and physical illness. These illness can ruin your life. But how do you recognize depression? Usually depression is recognized from the following indications:

- Insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping too much or little), - Loss of energy and fatigue, - Lack of interest in activities once engaged in with pleasure, - Persistent sadness, - Psychomotor agitation or retardation (hyper-activity, restlessness or slowness in action, - Feeling of remorse, guilt or hopelessness, - Difficulty in taking decisions, - Loss of concentration, - Significant loss or gain of weight and - Suicidal thoughts and tendencies

In addition to this there are some questionnaires or quizzes that can, if answered truthfully, show an indication of early depression. It should be stressed that these are not prescribed medically for the diagnosis of depression. The can only give you an indication and so help you to get early medical intervention.

The following are the questions that you have to answer with either a "Yes" or a "No".

1. Do you do things at a slow pace? 2. Do you start a project and not complete it? 3. Do you feel hopeless and think that you are worthless? 4. Do you get the inclination to run away and start life somewhere else? 5. Do you sleep more than usual or less than usual? 6. Do you loose concentration often? 7. Do you notice a change I your appetite (feeling constantly hungry or not wanting to eat at all)? 8. Do you feel lonely and ignored? 9. Do you snap at people for no reason? 10. Do you think of suicide?

If you find that you have answered four or more questions with an "Yes", then you are probably showing signs of clinical depression and it is high time that you went in for medical treatment. If you have a family doctor, see him immediately and he will refer you to a competent specialist clinical psychologist for further treatment. Fortunately, if diagnosed at an early stage, clinical depression can be cured completely with medication and support.

So take action immediately and you will be back in action in not time at all.

Oliver S. Daniel is a Freelance Writer of a variety of articles and can be reached at jayasingh.daniel@yahoo.co.in. His website is http://www.oddjams.com/