Season 4, Episode 16: Could it be depression? What a screening quiz can tell you
Each October, Calgary Counselling Centre and Counselling Alberta host National Depression Screening Day, a week-long initiative that encourages people to check in with their mental health. This year, from October 5–11, anyone can take a free, confidential online depression screening quiz at areyoufeelingok.com that looks for common signs of depression.
It’s not always easy to recognize when changes in how we’re feeling, thinking or functioning may be signs of something more. In this episode of Living Fully, counsellor Sarah Rosenfeld takes a closer look at the depression screening quiz, exploring what it can help us understand, what the questions are really asking, and how it can be used as a first step toward recognizing when it may be time to seek support.
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Katherine Hurtig
Welcome to Living Fully. Each episode is a chance to talk about mental health in a way that's simple, honest, and helpful. We'll share stories, tips, and tools to help you feel supported and feel your best. I'm your host, Katherine Hurtig. Each October, Calgary Counselling Centre and Counselling Alberta mark National Depression Screening Day by offering a free, confidential online depression screening quiz at areyoufeelingok.com.
This year, it's available from October 5-11, giving anyone the opportunity to take a few minutes to check in with their mental health. But what do the questions on that quiz actually mean? Why does it ask about things like sleep, appetite, energy, or concentration? And what can your answers really tell you?
Today, counsellor Sarah Rosenfeld joins me to walk through the quiz one question at a time. We'll talk about why each question is included, what some of those symptoms can tell us about our mental health, and why this simple check-in can be an important first step toward getting support if you need it.
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National Depression Screening Day is an opportunity to check in with your mental health. For one week each October, anyone can take a free, confidential online quiz that looks for common signs of depression. So, in just a few minutes, you'll get information about how you're feeling, and resources if you might benefit from additional support.
Today, we're taking a closer look at that quiz, what it's asking, why those questions matter, and what your answers can tell you about how you're doing. Sarah Rosenfeld, thank you for being here today.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Oh, I always love chatting with you.
Katherine Hurtig
Before we dive into each of the questions, can you kind of explain what this quiz is actually measuring?
Sarah Rosenfeld
I think it's a temperature check on your mental health. It's giving people a sense of, ‘Is this a moderate problem? Is this a more medium problem, or is this a bit more of a severe problem?’ And it gives you some feedback so that you can figure out what your next steps need to be, and it allows people to take a moment to reflect and consider what's going on. As you said, in a confidential way, and there's a whole bunch of different languages that it's provided in to make it as accessible for folks as possible. And you can do it anywhere you need to.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
The privacy of your home, in your car, wherever you're comfortable.
Katherine Hurtig
Why does a questionnaire that's asking about how you've been feeling over the past two weeks, why is that kind of timeframe important to look at?
Sarah Rosenfeld
It's important to look at from an early detection point of view. If those symptoms have been lasting for a couple of weeks, it might be an indicator that maybe they've actually been there longer than that. And what we want to do is be able to help people as early on as possible.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Sarah Rosenfeld
The quicker that we know about these things, the more we're able to support, help, assist – Get professional resources if they're needed.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
And that's why we want to know if it's been happening for two weeks or longer.
Katherine Hurtig
And the symptoms that are brought up in these questions, if you're experiencing some of them, does it always mean you have depression? Is it normal to experience them from time to time?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah, it's normal to experience that from time to time, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Sometimes you might be going through something episodically, where you're feeling a bit of anxiety, a bit of overwhelm. You might be having difficulty concentrating because there's something really stressful happening at work. But it's not a persistent thing that is continuing for a long period of time. So absolutely, it can happen without there being symptoms of depression present as well.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. So, it's 10 different questions. Why is it important to look at several symptoms together instead of just one, like just feeling sad or something?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Because we're wanting to see if there's an interaction at multiple areas of your life and your well-being. So, if we know that on aggregate, you're having issues in the area of sleep, or motivation, or sadness, we want to make sure that we're catching that, as I said, early.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
So that we can get people the help they need.
Katherine Hurtig
A bit of a background, this quiz, it wasn't developed by Calgary Counselling Centre or Counselling Alberta. It was developed by the Harvard Department of Psychiatry. The survey, it's called HANDS. HANDS stands for the Harvard Department of Psychiatry and National Depression Screening Day Scale. It's 10 questions to screen for depressive symptoms, and when you go through the quiz, you get one of three results: not recommended for further evaluation, recommended for further evaluation, or strongly recommended. With each one, it kind of starts, ‘Over the past few weeks, how often have you been feeling?’ Such and such. You can choose: none or a little of the time, some of the time, most of the time, or all of the time. We're going to go into this kind of question-by-question and talk about what these questions tell us. The first question is, ‘How often have you been feeling low in energy and slowed down?’ Why is low energy one of the symptoms we ask about?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Because sometimes there are physical manifestations to mood. What we want to be tracking is, ‘Are you having fatigue, and it's persistent?’ Symptoms like muscle weakness, pain, those things can actually be an indicator that there's something more significant happening for the person, so we want to be tracking that and paying attention to it.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. How is depression related fatigue different than just, you know, feeling tired after a busy week maybe?
Sarah Rosenfeld
We all might have a situation where something happened at work, we were required to exert a lot of energy, it was fatiguing. But we have a good night's sleep, we're able to...
Katherine Hurtig
To bounce back?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Bounce back. When you've got something that's happening persistently, that's something that you need to pay closer attention to and have somebody potentially monitor that.
Katherine Hurtig
And the second question, it asks, ‘How long have you been blaming yourself for things?’ Why might depression lead some people to blame themselves?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Self-blame sometimes starts to happen when people are experiencing setbacks or difficulties in their life. It can actually start a cycle of feeling really guilty and really, like, a lot of shame, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Where you feel that you're the bad person. Not that the event is creating something that's difficult for you, but somehow, you're to blame for that. That's problematic, right? To be able to start thinking in those terms, it really starts to shape people's perception sometimes of events, circumstances in their life. And so, that's why checking in on that is going to be important. When somebody is blaming themselves, they'll say something to the effect of, ‘I'm a failure,’ versus, ‘I forgot to take the garbage out today. I made a mistake.’
Katherine Hurtig
If you tend to think that way, could that potentially lead to depression if you're talking to yourself that way frequently?
Sarah Rosenfeld
It could.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah?
Sarah Rosenfeld
But we also have to think about the other factors that are at play. Yeah, that may be something that you could address, but it might not be leading to symptoms of depression if some of the other things are not also co-occurring with that.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Sarah Rosenfeld
I think you got to look at this in a context, and that's why this survey is so helpful because it's individualized to the person, and you're able to look at these symptoms for that individual in different areas of functioning in their life.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. So, the next question talks about appetite, ‘How often in the past few weeks have you had a poor appetite?’ Why do we ask people about appetite when talking about mental health?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Appetite isn't just about hunger. It's connected sometimes to stress levels, emotional regulation. Sometimes people are so busy, they're not able to regulate their emotions, they don't eat.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. It's interesting. You don't think about that from day-to-day, but I've definitely experienced that. Like, I've had periods of grief in my life where there's weeks where it's you just have no appetite. You don't care about eating at all.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Exactly, and thanks for sharing that. Sometimes hunger is driven by exactly these other emotional things that have happened in our lives, and so it affects our eating patterns and our relationship to food. That's a thing that we want to be tracking and taking a temperature check on. Like, ‘Has this been happening for more than two weeks?’
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. That brings me back to the many other conversations I've had with you guys in looking at these symptoms as a whole and looking at three aspects of them: their intensity, duration, and severity.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah. That's really important. Intensity is the last thing to change, actually. If the scope, it's happening in less places in our life, has changed—
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
That means that's having less of an impact on our lives. And for how long it lasts. You said you've had periods, but you're not in one of those periods now.
Katherine Hurtig
Right.
Sarah Rosenfeld
So, ‘How long is this lasting for?’ And that's where the two-week question is so relevant and helpful.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Because it's not just a day or half a day. We've been noticing over the past two weeks that, ‘My appetite has been disrupted.’
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. Another physical symptom that we look at in the quiz is sleep. So, it asks, ‘How often have you had difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.’ Sleep problems, they're common for a lot of people. Getting older, I've definitely been experiencing more issues with my sleep.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Me too, Katherine.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. But what makes sleep difficulties a potential sign of depression?
Sarah Rosenfeld
When we're sleep-deprived, we have a harder time managing day-to-day tasks. We have a harder time making decisions. We have a harder time managing our emotions. That's why you want to pay attention to sleep. Because again, ‘Are you having this episodically? Is it happening from time-to-time and it's linked to something else in your life? Or is it that you're not really sure where it's coming from or why it's started to take a hold?’
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
And sometimes, again, because this is a check in, people might not even be noticing that their sleep has been affected. The fact that you have awareness around the sleep and that it's disruptive is actually helpful because then you seek other information – You consult, you get resources. The challenge with not recognizing that sleep might be a disruptive pattern is that it does affect all those areas that we've just talked about, and you might not even know that that's happening for you.
Katherine Hurtig
And the question isn't exactly framed this way, but I remember when I was going through depression, it was kind of the opposite. It wasn't having trouble sleeping, it was that I wanted to sleep all the time. Can that happen as well?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Exactly. It's on a continuum. You need to be getting an average number of hours of sleep per night. If you're getting less than that or you're waking frequently, not able to get back to sleep, or as you say, you're sleeping more than you normally would, you're just so fatigued or...
Katherine Hurtig
Right.
Sarah Rosenfeld
It could be an avoidance strategy sometimes for some folks.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
That's outside of the range of what we would consider normal sleep and restful sleep. You're absolutely right, it can show up in different ways.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
But it's a disrupted pattern of sleep.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. Does improving sleep always improve depression or is it more complicated than that?
Sarah Rosenfeld
It's always more complicated than that.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
It can help, but again, even if your sleep improves, you might still have symptoms that would look like depression.
Katherine Hurtig
Right.
Sarah Rosenfeld
You might be able to improve that one area, but maybe you still have the distorted thinking, or the appetite is not regulated. Yeah, it can improve some things, but you got to look at this in a holistic way. People's overall well-being. They might have certain areas where they're functioning really optimally and other areas where they're not.
Katherine Hurtig
But I would think if you're working to improve your depressive symptoms, it would always be good to start with the basics, like sleep, nutrition, and movement. Is that right?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Absolutely.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah?
Sarah Rosenfeld
It's always going to be those three basic things.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Sometimes those are actually the hardest things for folks, though, to address.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
I think.
Katherine Hurtig
Is that what you found?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah, I think because people also don't think it's so simple. They think it's this magical thing. They have magical thinking about, ‘Well, if I go and change my job or leave the country, that's going to improve everything.’ It's actually the smaller, little things that we do every day over time that incrementally increase the quality of our lives.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
So, you're right, it does start with those really small things. But sometimes, the education around this is what's so important, is helping people recognize that those small, little steps that they take add up over the days, and months, and years that lie ahead.
Katherine Hurtig
And I think we really want, not instant gratification, but a little bit. I mean, especially if we're feeling depressed. Like yeah, those small things add up, but just going for one 15-minute walk isn't going to change everything. But if you're doing that every day, if you're making sure that you're getting enough sleep, if you're eating three good meals a day, over time it does help.
Sarah Rosenfeld
I know, but as you say, it's not kind of flashy and exciting, is it?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
And it's not immediate.
Katherine Hurtig
When you're in it, you want to feel better now.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Exactly.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
And so how do we help people understand that that consistency and continuing to be persistent with something will make a difference in the long term? And they can only really experience that once they've had an episode where they see the benefit of that.
Katherine Hurtig
Right.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Whatever mechanisms help people to track that and notice over time, that's what we call reality testing, right?
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Sarah Rosenfeld
We want to be able to look back at a period in time where we weren't doing something, then recognize that we have engaged in behaviour.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
And now track how we're feeling about ourselves and our relationships, and just ourselves, you know, our lives.
Katherine Hurtig
Is that one of the methods that you might potentially use with a client experiencing depression? Is kind of tracking their behaviours and how they feel about themselves?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Absolutely.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Our self-perception is a little bit off. Having objective mechanisms to be able to track that is very helpful.
Katherine Hurtig
The next question is, ‘How long have you been feeling hopeless about the future?’ Why is hopelessness considered a significant symptom of depression?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Because that's about the future, and that there's a positive outcome for the future. So, when you're feeling hopeless, you're not feeling that things that you do now will make a difference in your future, so why bother doing them now?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
It's that ‘why bother’ mentality, which is present for a lot of people with depression. They don't think that the little things make a difference. That orientation and worldview can really affect whether you put energy, effort into things.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. Is that something that you would even feel, like you said, episodically? Like, do you feel hopeless one day but not the next?
Sarah Rosenfeld
That's a really good question. I don't know that you feel hopeless one day and then not the next, but you probably have persistent feelings of sadness. Helplessness probably more than hopelessness.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Like, you can't figure out what to do or how to do it, and what will make a difference. I think that would be more a hallmark of what we would be seeing. And low motivation, right? Not feeling like, ‘I can do anything.’ Or, as you say, you go for one 15-minute walk, but you don't do it the next day.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
And then three weeks later you look back and in a period of a month you've only done one 15-minute walk.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, everything just feels harder when you're in that space.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah, it does. You're right.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. What we hear, what's common, like that feeling of not wanting to get out of bed. Like, little things are just so hard.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah. The little things do become really, really hard. They become mountains. So then, having to add on more complex things just feels like an impossible task, and people feel weighed down by that, and overwhelmed.
Katherine Hurtig
Question number six says, ‘How often in the past couple weeks have you been feeling blue?’ What does that actually mean? I think we want to break that down because for some people that makes sense, but people from other cultures might not really understand that concept of feeling a colour, you know?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Absolutely. That's a very good point. People sometimes ask me, ‘What does that really mean?’
Katherine Hurtig
Really?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Sad, gloomy, down. Just not having the energy that you want to have.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
But sometimes you do need to provide a context for what that means because it's part of our vernacular.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
We speak about it. We understand what it means. But you're right, it's a colour, ‘What does that mean?’ More teary than normal, lack of motivation. Again, preferring to spend time by yourself when you normally don't want to do those things. Those would be kind of indicators that maybe you're starting to feel blue.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. And the next question, ‘How long have you been feeling no interest in things?’ So, why is that loss of interest an important symptom of depression?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Because those things are connected to pleasure and enjoyment. Those are the things that bring us joy, and depression gets in the way of us feeling that stuff. That's why we ask that question, ‘Have you been feeling no interest in things? And for how long?’ So that we can identify that maybe you haven't been connecting to the hobbies that you like to do or the people you like to connect with. It's that temperature check again, Katherine.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Some people don't notice that this has been happening.
Katherine Hurtig
And what's the difference between that loss of interest or maybe just feeling bored or needing a break?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Again, it's about that pervasive, persistent not wanting to do things. It's OK that, you know, in a week you've had maybe not as much interest in doing things you normally want to do. But is that happening in the second week, third week, and now six months from the first time you had that thought?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
It's about the persistence of it, and that's why we do it around that two-week measurement to see if it's developing a pattern in your life.
Katherine Hurtig
Do you find, like in your work with clients, is this something that people tend to notice in themselves? Or is it more often family and friends that are pointing it out?
Sarah Rosenfeld
I think it depends how much somebody has actually experienced symptoms of depression and what kind of treatment they've received, and how much self-awareness they have around it.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. So, it really varies.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Some people do have awareness, and they go, ‘Oh, this is kind of one of the hallmarks of what happens for me when I start to feel lower mood.’ But for some people, especially if it's a first instance, it might be the external people in their life noticing that they're not connecting, they're not answering texts, they're not coming out to pickleball.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. The next question, and we've kind of gone over this, and I'm sure it's going to be a bit of the same, but it's, ‘How long have you had feelings of worthlessness?’ That one is, I think, a bit more obvious to me. If you're feeling like you don't have any worth, and you've been feeling it a good chunk of the time, that's a pretty obvious indicator that you're not doing so good.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah, because it's usually accompanied with negative self-talk, that hopelessness thing that we talked about, and sadness.
Katherine Hurtig
In your experience with clients, how do they kind of describe that? Do you hear them saying that they feel worthless or are they describing it differently?
Sarah Rosenfeld
That's a really good question. I don't think they describe it as feeling worthless.
Katherine Hurtig
No?
Sarah Rosenfeld
I don't know that they would be able to put language to that, although there are exceptions.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Some people do have that ability to name things really clearly. I think it's more feeling badly about themselves, when they're doing something that it's going to make a difference or that it's going to matter. It's sort of that feeling of, ‘I can't contribute. I can't give back. I can't help people. I can't help myself.’ It more shows up in that way from what I've seen.
Katherine Hurtig
Why can depression affect the way we see ourselves?
Sarah Rosenfeld
If this is a pattern that persists, it's going to affect our perception of the world and perception of ourselves. If you go into interactions thinking you won't be effective, you don't bring anything to the table, and that lasts for a period of weeks, months, years. Other people might objectively know that you contribute things, but it's kind of that you start to develop this inferiority that you don't actually add value. And then that interferes with your interactions with other people, your relationships, what you feel that you can do in those moments where you're being asked to do things. So, I think it really affects our perception of ourselves. And self-perception is so important. How we perceive ourselves projects so much in the way we interact in the world. Having those thoughts of worthlessness, if they're not addressed, talked about, looked at, that just becomes part of what you think is normal.
Katherine Hurtig
The next question is a big one, and I'm sure this one's... It'd be really difficult for someone, for that question to pop up when they're taking this quiz. It's, ‘How often in the past two weeks have you thought about or wanted to commit suicide?’
Sarah Rosenfeld
That would be really scary. I think what is really important, and what I'd really like people to hear about this, is that sometimes suicidal thoughts are a coping mechanism.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. Tell me more.
Sarah Rosenfeld
‘If I could just drive the car this way and drive it off the road, then I wouldn't have to deal with X, Y, and Z.’
Katherine Hurtig
Right.
Sarah Rosenfeld
It's not really that the person wants to end their life, it's that they don't know what to do, and that just feels like an escape.
Katherine Hurtig
They don't want to be feeling what they're feeling anymore.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Exactly.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
So, it's not necessarily going to lead to action. In quite a few people, it does not. Some people it does, and there's a whole other set of things that you have to do when that's the case. But it's really this form of, ‘It'd just be easier.’ That's what I hear from clients, ‘It'd just be easier. I know I'm not going to act on that, but sometimes when things are overwhelming and I don't know what to do, and I'm feeling like I'm diminished, that's just an outlet for me to be able to cope with day-to-day stuff.’
Katherine Hurtig
I remember when I was getting counselling for my depression, even though, I mean, it's one of the things that's talked about. I was still always really afraid to bring up any thoughts of that, even with my counsellor, because I kind of thought, ‘OK, if I say that that's even crossed my mind...’ It's one of those safety things you bring up with clients, right?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah.
Katherine Hurtig
If you think that there's potential for harm, you have to involve other people. So, I always kind of thought, ‘If I raise that subject at all, then this whole thing is just going to get a lot more complicated.’ So, I kept it to myself. But the way you put that, that makes a lot of sense. We could've dug into that and how it is more, what did you say? A coping mechanism?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah, it's just a coping mechanism. It's a way, right? In the absence of having something else to cope, that's often something people turn to. And then the other thing that you're talking about is, of course, they don't want to bring it up because they are worried for the same reasons that you've just described, that now we have to take action. But it's actually the job of the clinician to be able to determine, ‘Is this just a coping strategy and you're not actually going to act on this?’ Because it's about the intent and action of the thought.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. And I guess we should be really clear, for everyone it's not, as you say, a coping mechanism. It is more serious.
Sarah Rosenfeld
That's a different conversation.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
And then there's clinical steps that you would have to take.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Sarah Rosenfeld
As you say, to involve other people, to access other supports, because this person has actually disclosed that they're not able to keep themselves safe. And that's a really important conversation to have with a professional, and then they step in and get the right support and resources. In a lot of those instances, people get the help they need, and then they're able to have different coping mechanisms.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. What would you say to someone who answers ‘yes’ to this question, says that they do have thoughts about this, and they feel scared or ashamed?
Sarah Rosenfeld
‘It sounds like this is really making you feel nervous and upset. Let's kind of figure out how to take the next steps forward.’ I think you're right, some people are going to answer this, and it's going to scare them, the answers. And then, ‘What do I do with it?’ But you don't have to do this alone. There's lots of support. You can reach out. You can get help. You can talk to your family physician, you can talk to your support network. And then, you take those next steps, and it's one step at a time. It doesn't all come together right away. This is just a screening tool to help us figure out where you're at and what next steps are needed, if any.
Katherine Hurtig
And the last question of the quiz is, ‘How often have you experienced having difficulty of concentrating or making decisions?’ So, that's an interesting one.
Sarah Rosenfeld
It is, isn't it?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Sometimes people have this symptom of feeling slower, fatigued, like they don't feel as sharp maybe in being able to make decisions. Or, they're having a hard time figuring out, ‘What are the steps that I need to take?’ The sequences they need to take to get from point A to point B. That's why this one's important.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
‘Are you having difficulty knowing what next steps to take?’
Katherine Hurtig
I would think that if someone's experiencing this particular symptom on top of some of the other ones that we've talked about, I could see that this one would be more easy to brush off as something else going on, and not necessarily depression.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Right, because guess what? We're overloaded with information.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
We have to make a million decisions every day. It's pretty normal that we have difficulty making decisions, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, or concentrating.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Or concentrating.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, for sure.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Because we got these distractions all the time. Again, it's about the persistence of that happening in many situations, right?
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah. So, I've heard people kind of describe this as ‘brain fog.’ Do you think that's kind of an accurate way to think about it?
Sarah Rosenfeld
I think it can be. I think that's an informal term that people have used to be able to kind of describe that they just don't feel all that sharp.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
And clear-headed, and clear thinking. I think it can be accurate. I mean, I don't know that it's scientifically proven that that's what you would say, but that is a way for people to describe the symptom that they're experiencing.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. Looking across all these questions, as a mental health professional, what patterns are you looking for?
Sarah Rosenfeld
For me, it's kind of what we talked about earlier. Is this happening in all areas of your life? Some areas of your life? Some of the time? All of the time? Most of the time? Are you able to manage the symptoms when they come up so that they're less strong? And if somebody's saying that it's happening all the time in every aspect of their life and they're not able to manage, I'd be much more concerned than if somebody said, ‘Well, it only seems to happen when I'm interacting with my dad when he's in a really bad mood, and I can't regulate.’
Katherine Hurtig
Right.
Sarah Rosenfeld
That's very different, much more specific. So, the more global it is, the more concerned I would be.
Katherine Hurtig
And when you say ‘global.’
Sarah Rosenfeld
It seems to be happening everywhere.
Katherine Hurtig
OK. Another thing that's important to point out about this quiz: it's not a diagnostic tool.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah. That's very important.
Katherine Hurtig
So, if you get a high score on this quiz, it doesn't mean, ‘Yeah, you have depression.’ It's just a check-in.
Sarah Rosenfeld
It's a screener for us to kind of figure out and make accessible this conversation actually—
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah, for sure.
Sarah Rosenfeld
About mental health, and wellness, and mood, and depression, and anxiety. It's allowing that to be a normalized part of people's lives.
Katherine Hurtig
So, whatever score you get, that's just a piece of information. And we give you resources at the end of this quiz on lots of different avenues for getting help, if that's something you want to do. So, Sarah, from your work with clients, is there one symptom of depression that you think people are surprised about to learn that that can be related to depression?
Sarah Rosenfeld
You talked about it, actually.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah?
Sarah Rosenfeld
The physical symptoms: the aches and pains. Like, the body can actually have physical symptoms when people are feeling depression. And I think people are sometimes surprised by that because when we think about mood, we think about the brain.
Katherine Hurtig
Totally.
Sarah Rosenfeld
We don't think about the body, but it does have an impact on the body and its functioning.
Katherine Hurtig
It is really interesting how connected that is.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Yeah. So, I think that's one thing that people are really surprised by. And then I think one of the other things, I think we talked a little bit about it, but that feeling of guilt and shame sometimes is surprising for folks that they would experience that.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Like, guilt about what? But they do. They feel guilty. They feel overly responsible. That can be something that surprises people as well.
Katherine Hurtig
If someone takes this quiz and recognizes themselves in several of these questions, what should their next step be?
Sarah Rosenfeld
Well, first of all, I don't want people to panic. Take a deep breath. Slow down. It's a sign that you might be struggling with something. As you said, it's not diagnostic, so it doesn't necessarily mean you are depressed, and it's about what you do with that information next. What are the next steps that you're going to take? It's a starting point.
Katherine Hurtig
Sarah, what's the biggest misconception people have about depression that you'd like our listeners to walk away with today?
Sarah Rosenfeld
I think that's a really important one. One of the things that I would say is it's not just about you being sad.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Sarah Rosenfeld
And it's not your fault. This is a serious and sometimes really complicated thing that happens to people.
Katherine Hurtig
That's a really good one, that it's not your fault. That's probably a message that I could have benefited from when I was going through it, because it's... You do. You just feel like you should be able to ‘snap out of it.’
Sarah Rosenfeld
And that just encourages more stigma, right? It stops people from reaching out. Then people minimize the severity of the symptoms that they're having. So then, what we know is, as you minimize that for longer, it means you didn't get help sooner. Which could have maybe helped you avoid suffering. I think that approach, or mentality, or response really doesn't help any of us, and it definitely doesn't help the person that's experiencing these symptoms.
Katherine Hurtig
Well, thank you so much, Sarah. Thanks for helping us break down the quiz.
Sarah Rosenfeld
Always a pleasure. Thanks for having me, Katherine.
Katherine Hurtig
From October 5-11, take the free confidential depression screening quiz at areyoufeelingok.com. It's a simple way to check in on your mental health. It only takes a few minutes and can help point you toward the support you need. Brought to you by Calgary Counselling Centre and Counselling Alberta.
You've been listening to Living Fully, a Calgary Counselling Centre podcast. Thank you for tuning in. This episode was produced by Layla Ruggles, Luiza Campos, Julianna Adair, Jenna Forbes, and by me, Katherine Hurtig. A special thanks to Sarah Rosenfeld.
Tune in to our next episode on October 8. We'll be talking about how depression changes the way we think.
Marcus Cheung
Depression has an ability to take away those possibilities for you, right? And this is why when people struggle with depression, they entered into a series of what we called unhelpful thinking patterns.
Katherine Hurtig
OK.
Marcus Cheung
You know, they are not thinking in a way, perhaps, that is possibility oriented.
Katherine Hurtig
Yeah.
Marcus Cheung
You know, it's pretty narrow focused, it's pretty negative. And we know when people struggled to think that way, they also struggle to feel a certain way. Because there's obviously a correlation between—
Katherine Hurtig
Your thoughts and feelings.
Marcus Cheung
Your thinking and how you feel. And ultimately, what you do.
Katherine Hurtig
To stay up to date on our latest episodes, be sure to subscribe. We're available in your favourite podcast app. Living Fully is a production of Calgary Counselling Centre and recorded in Calgary on Treaty 7 territory. Living Fully podcast is not a substitute or alternative for professional care or treatment. Calgary Counselling Centre and Counselling Alberta provide effective counselling to anyone in Alberta with no waitlist and no financial barriers. Find us online at calgarycounselling.com and counsellingalberta.com. For help across Canada and the United States, call 211. If you are outside of Canada and the U.S., seek help from your general medical practitioner.