Experiencing Depression

Doctor Jon Lieberman describes the experience of living with depression, which includes strong feelings of apathy, anxiety, and problems sleeping.

In my experience, depression has turned out to be an overwhelming sense of apathy, incompetence and severe, intense anxiety. In fact, extreme and intense anxiety is often the presenting symptom in a doctor’s office. I had zero energy, zero motivation to do anything. I read a lot of professional journals and textbooks, and I found when I was depressed I couldn’t do more than read 'People' magazine and magazines of that ilk with pictures. Frequently there are sleep disturbances associated with depression, those would be the insomnias, and there are several different insomnias. There is sleep-onset insomnia where people are unable to fall asleep, there’s frequent awakening during the night and early morning awakening, like awakening when it’s pitch black and lying in bed and dreading the horror of the coming day.