• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FHE Health | Inpatient Rehab & Mental Health Facility in Florida Homepage

Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health Treatment

ContactCareers

Call for Immediate Help (833) 596-3502

MENUMENU
  • About
        • About FHE Rehab
          • About FHE Health
          • Our Staff
          • Locations We Serve
          • Testimonials
        • Our Campus
          • Gallery
          • Our Videos
          • The Health and Wellness Center at FHE Health
        • Our Locations
          • Alcohol Rehab
          • Detox Center
          • Drug Rehab
          • Mental Health Center
          • Outpatient Rehab
        • Careers at FHE Health
          • Employment Opportunities
        • Our Expertise
          • Accreditations
          • Educational Opportunities
          • Community Impact Award
          • First Responder Families Podcast
          • First Responder Paws
          • Education Scholarship
  • Addiction
        • Treatment Programs
          • Treatment Program Overview
          • Alcohol Addiction
          • Drug Addiction Treatment
          • Behavioral Addiction
        • Levels of Care
          • Continuum of Care
          • Addiction Detox
          • Inpatient Addiction Treatment
          • Outpatient Addiction Treatment
        • What We Treat
          • Alcoholism
          • Amphetamines
          • Benzodiazepines
          • Cocaine
          • Heroin
          • Opioids
          • Sedative
  • Mental Health
        • Mental Health Rehab
          • Mental Health Rehab
          • Onsite Psychiatric Care
          • Dual Diagnosis
        • Levels of Care
          • Residential Mental Health Care
          • Outpatient Mental Health Care
        • What We Treat
          • ADD & ADHD
          • Anxiety Disorders
          • Bipolar Disorder
          • Depression
          • Eating Disorders
          • Personality Disorders
          • PTSD
          • Schizophrenia
          • Substance Use Disorder
          • Trauma
  • Programs
        • FHE Programs
          • Specialty Program Overview
          • Restore (Mental Health)
          • Empower! (Women's Program)
          • Shatterproof FHE Health(First Responders)
          • Compass Program
        • Support Programs
          • Alumni
          • Family Support
        • Therapies
          • Acupuncture
          • Breathwork Therapy
          • CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
          • DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)
          • EMDR Therapy
          • Expressive Arts Therapy
          • Individual Therapy
          • Group Therapy
          • Gambling Therapy
          • Massage
        • Medical Care
          • Medical Integration
          • Ketamine Infusion
          • IV Vitamin
          • Fitness & Nutrition
          • Medication-Assisted Treatment
          • Medication Management
        • NeuroRehab Services
          • Neuro Rehabilitation
          • Neurofeedback Training
          • Neurostimulation Therapy
          • EEG Brain Mapping
          • Insomnia Treatment for PTSD
  • Resources
        • FHE Guides
          • Understanding Drug Abuse
          • Signs of Addiction
          • The Disease of Addiction
          • Confronting Addiction
          • Staging an Intervention
          • Rehab Success Rate – Does It Really Work?
          • Withdrawal Timelines
          • Life After Rehab
          • LGBTQ+ Community Resources
          • Veteran Resources
          • FHE Podcasts
          • Remote Resources Toolkit
        • Learning Center
          • Help for You
          • Help For Loved Ones
          • Help For Alcoholism
          • Help With Substance Abuse
          • Behavioral & Mental Health
          • Life in Recovery
          • Rehab Explained
          • Addiction Statistics
          • Our Research Articles
          • View All Articles
        • The Experience Blog
          • Addiction News
          • Alumni
          • Community Events
          • Expert Opinions
          • FHE Commentary
          • FHE News
          • Treatment Legislation
          • View All Articles
  • Admissions
        • Insurance
          • Blue Cross Insurance
          • Beacon Health / Value Options Insurance
          • Cigna Insurance
          • Humana Insurance
          • TRICARE Insurance
        • Admissions
          • Steps to Addiction Help
          • Will Insurance Cover Behavioral Treatment?
          • Self-Pay Rehab
        • FAQ
          • Keeping Your Job in Rehab
          • Example Day in Rehab
        • Contact Admissions
          • Contact Us
          • Secure Payment Form
  • Contact
  •  
Home > Learning > Behavioral & Mental Health > How to Know if I’m in Denial About Depression

May 28, 2024 By Kristina Robb-Dover

How to Know if I’m in Denial About Depression

Facing the Truth: Recognizing Denial in Depression

“I feel so depressed!” It’s a claim we’ve all made at some point in our lives. But what does “feeling depressed” actually mean?

We often confuse feeling sad with feeling depressed. Sadness is a temporary, normal reaction to unexpected and unpleasant events. Examples of events that typically make almost anybody sad include the death of a loved one, the loss of a pet, or not getting that job you wanted.

Unlike depression, sadness diminishes in time. The birth of a child, rescuing a pet from a shelter, and finding another job you like replaces sadness with joy. You can forget about feeling sad. But you can’t forget about feeling depressed.

Describing why you are sad is much easier than describing why you are depressed. Sadness typically involves one, specific event that caused you to feel “down in the dumps.” Alternately, people who are clinically depressed find it difficult and painful to explain why they are depressed. You may have nothing to be depressed about in your life but, for some inexplicable reason, you wake up every day feeling hopeless, despondent, and exhausted.

Depression Denial is Real

Unfortunately, the stigma of having a mental illness remains just as pervasive in society as it did decades ago. Mental illnesses like clinical depression or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are diseases, not choices. The CDC published a report several years ago showing that only 57 percent of respondents thought that individuals with mental health problems were treated sympathetically. When asked if they thought others would treat them compassionately upon disclosure of their mental illness, only 25 percent of the respondents thought they would.

Depression denial emerges from the fear of societal stigma and the fear of “self-stigma,” or the terrifying realization that your depression is not going away without professional help. Social stigma against people who are mentally ill is well-documented in both research and anecdotal reports. It’s been proven that employers hesitate to hire someone with a history of mental health problems or substance abuse. Landlords hesitate to rent to individuals with an irregular employment history due to mental illness. Establishing friendships with people who do not have histories of mental illness is almost impossible if you struggle with depression or other mental health issues.

Anticipating being ostracized by society is one of the primary reasons many people deny depression symptoms. (Men face a unique set of societal pressures that often keep them from reaching out for help.) Another reason is that denial of depression involves your sense of self-worth. When you are depressed, you don’t think you are worthy of getting help. Your self-esteem is so low you don’t think you matter to anyone. You’re afraid of the skeptical, cold reaction you’ll receive if you tell family and friends you are getting psychological help for depression.

Are All Depression Disorders the Same?

Historically, depression has been defined by psychologists as “anger that has been re-directed to the self.” Although a bit of an oversimplification, it helps to describe a basic cause of depression. That said, like other mental illnesses, depression is a multi-faced brain disease involving biopsychosocial factors, neurotransmitters, and genetics.

Consider the example of Annie, who started feeling depressed after her best friend from high school moved away. Her depressed mood continued for weeks after her friend left to take a job in another state. One day, she got a phone call from an old high school boyfriend who was planning on attending their 10th-anniversary party. He asked if she wanted to go with him and she said “Yes.” Annie’s mood brightened considerably after the phone call. She felt the dark cloud of depression disappear as she looked forward to the party.

Within days after the party, Annie’s depression returned. She could barely get out of bed, cried for no reason, self-isolated from friends, and couldn’t concentrate on anything but her despondency.

Annie was later diagnosed with atypical depression. Although not as common as major depressive disorder, atypical depression symptoms can prevent someone from getting the help they need because they don’t think they are depressed. With atypical depression, the person feels considerably less depressed after a positive event.

However, if Annie had a major depressive disorder, she would not have felt better after the phone call from a high school boyfriend. Her symptoms would only have worsened if she didn’t reach out for professional help. In other words, not all depression and depressive disorders are the same.

Characteristics of All Depression Disorders

Whether you are struggling with major depression, atypical depression, seasonal affective disorder, or another type of depression, certain symptoms remain constant among all depression categories. These include:

  • Concentrating on “bad” things while being unable to recognize anything positive that happens to you. Psychologists call this “minimization and magnification.” People experiencing major depression often exaggerate negative events but deliberately downplay positive events.
  • Personalizing everything that anyone says to you or anything that happens to you. For example, a friend mentions that there is a tiny hole in the back of your shirt. But you immediately take this as criticism of the way you dress. Depression causes you to jump to conclusions and assume the worst.
  • Constantly ruminating on the “should haves” and “could haves” in your life. For depressed individuals, feeling guilty over past decisions that may or may not have profoundly affected their lives or other people’s lives intensifies the sense of worthlessness they feel about themselves.
  • Experiencing physical symptoms with no underlying medical reason commonly affects depressed individuals. Weight gain caused by binge eating, headaches/migraines, constantly feeling exhausted, muscle and joint pain and heart palpitations are just a few physical manifestations of depression.

Call FHE to Learn About Our Outpatient and Residential Mental Health Treatment Options

Denying depression can be harmful to an individual’s physical and mental health. Unless addressed by experienced and compassionate counselors and therapists, depression symptoms can devolve into suicidal ideation and worsening health issues.

At FHE, we treat all types of depression with a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and other therapies, medications, and support. Outpatient and residential depression treatment programs help you understand why you feel depressed and how negative thinking patterns contribute to unwarranted self-criticism. When you are in the grip of depression, your perception of how things actually are remains distorted and hyper-subjective.

When atypical, major, or bipolar depression symptoms start interfering with your ability to take care of your physical health, remain employed, or complete simple, everyday tasks, don’t go another day without the chance to feel better. Call our specialists today to get the help you need to successfully manage depression.

Filed Under: Behavioral & Mental Health, Featured in Mental Health

About Kristina Robb-Dover

Kristina Robb-Dover is a content manager and writer with extensive editing and writing experience... read more

Primary Sidebar

Learning Center

  • Help for You
  • Help For Loved Ones
  • Help For Alcoholism
  • Help With Substance Abuse
  • Behavioral & Mental Health
  • Life in Recovery
  • Rehab Explained
  • All Articles

Sign up for the Blog

Our Facilities

Take a look at our state of the art treatment center.

View Our Gallery

The Experience Blog

  • Addiction News
  • Alumni
  • Community Events
  • Expert Columns
  • FHE Commentary
  • FHE News
  • Treatment Legislation
  • All Articles

Footer

FHE Health

© 2025 FHE Health

505 S Federal Hwy #2,
Deerfield Beach, Florida 33441
1-833-596-3502
youtube facebook instagram linkedin twitter
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • AI Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
A+ BBB and Top Places to Work - Sun Sentinel

Copyright © 2025 · FHE Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care.

If there are any concerns about content we have published, please reach out to us at marketing@fhehealth.com.

833-596-3502

Text/Call Me