Negativity

You may have negative thoughts that are closely linked with your persistent low mood. Everyone who suffers from depression has negative thoughts. Perhaps you feel that you don't live up to your own or others' expectations. You may also feel that you are lazy, selfish or you have unrealistic expectations of your own family. Perhaps you label yourself as a bad person or a failure.

Feeling guilty

You may feel guilty about things you've done, done wrong or should have done. While your negative thoughts may contain an element of truth, your feelings of guilt are exaggerated. Sometimes they are completely unrealistic.

An example may be:

A man aged 50 or so develops depression and keeps thinking about his youth, when he worked for a large company, which supplied employees with the clothing they needed for their work.

He remembers having taken a pair of work trousers home once but isn't sure whether he'd stolen them or not - perhaps he'd just forgotten to take them off when he went home.

Now, 30 years later, he is racked with guilt about the trousers. He is sure that the incident just goes to show what a thief and a bad person he is. He feels that he should go to the police and be severely punished.