Career fit · 2-minute test
Am I Depressed? Take a Free 2-Minute Self-Check
Depression is a measurable cluster of symptoms, not just sadness. The DSM-5 requires at least 5 symptoms persisting two weeks or more, including either depressed mood or anhedonia (loss of pleasure). The PHQ-9, the most validated short screening tool in primary care, captures this with 9 items. If two or more of the four signs below have been present most days for the last fortnight, a screener score is the next-step diagnostic. This is a self-check, not a diagnosis; only a clinician can diagnose.
Your 2-minute depression self-check
5 questions · 0 of 5 answered · ~2 minutes
The four signs worth checking
Each sign alone can come from many causes; two or more present most days for two weeks or more is the pattern that meets the DSM-5 threshold for a depressive episode. The signs below summarise the PHQ-9 items used in primary care.
Have you lost interest in things you used to enjoy for two weeks or more?
Anhedonia (the loss of pleasure) is one of the two core DSM-5 symptoms of major depression. It separates depression from ordinary sadness: a sad person still anticipates pleasure from familiar things; a depressed person finds that the music, food, friends, or hobbies that used to work simply do not anymore. The PHQ-9 leads with this item for a reason — it is the single most discriminating screening question. Two weeks is the minimum duration; longer than a month is the strongest signal.
Source: American Psychiatric Association, DSM-5-TR Diagnostic Criteria
Has your sleep, appetite, or energy changed in a sustained way?
Major depression typically involves a measurable shift in at least one of the three vegetative symptoms: sleep (insomnia or hypersomnia), appetite (loss or increase, often with weight change), or energy (fatigue out of proportion to activity). These are not lifestyle quirks — the DSM-5 requires the change to be near-daily and to cause distress or functional impairment. Tracking sleep and appetite for a week is the easiest pre-clinic data point you can bring to a doctor.
Source: Kroenke, Spitzer & Williams (2001), Journal of General Internal Medicine
Do you feel like a burden or a failure to people in your life?
Worthlessness and excessive guilt are PHQ-9 items 6 and 7. They are different from low self-esteem: depressive guilt is global ("I am letting everyone down") and resistant to reassurance, even when objective evidence contradicts it. If you find yourself building cases against your own worth that you would not accept from a friend on your own behalf, that pattern is a high-specificity signal in screening research.
Source: Kroenke, Spitzer & Williams (2001), Journal of General Internal Medicine
Has functioning at work, home, or relationships measurably slipped?
DSM-5 makes functional impairment a required criterion. Without impairment, even five symptoms do not meet the threshold. Concrete markers: missed deadlines you would normally hit, withdrawn relationships, household tasks left undone for weeks, calls and messages unanswered. Functional impairment is also what separates a depressive episode from a hard week — duration plus impairment is the lens clinicians use, and the lens the PHQ-9's question 10 captures.
Source: American Psychiatric Association, DSM-5-TR Diagnostic Criteria
Why this matters — the data
Depression is one of the most common and most under-treated conditions worldwide. NIMH estimates that 8.3% of U.S. adults — about 21 million people — experienced a major depressive episode in a single year, with the highest rate (18.6%) among 18-25 year olds. The WHO puts the global figure at approximately 280 million people, about 3.8% of the world population, with rates roughly 50% higher in women than men. The lifetime treatment gap is wide: in many countries more than half of people who would meet criteria never receive a clinical assessment. A two-minute screener is not a substitute for clinical care, but it is the first step that closes that gap — turning a vague sense that something is wrong into a structured signal you can bring to a doctor or therapist.
- NIMH Major Depression Statistics 2021 — 8.3% U.S. adult MDE
- WHO, Depression Fact Sheet — 280M globally
- Kroenke, Spitzer & Williams (2001), Journal of General Internal Medicine — 88%/88% Sn/Sp at cutoff 10
Three common scenarios
The 'high-functioning' worker
Career intact, deadlines mostly met, but every task takes three times the willpower. Joy is gone. This is a common depression presentation — outwardly competent, internally drained. The functional impairment criterion is met (the energy cost is the impairment), even though externally visible markers are not. PHQ-9 scores in the 10-14 range are typical here, and the prognosis with treatment is excellent.
Postpartum, 4-8 weeks in
Postpartum depression affects roughly 10-15% of new mothers (and a meaningful minority of fathers and partners). The clinical pattern looks like generic MDD but typically arrives 4-8 weeks after birth, often with anxious intrusive thoughts. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is the standard screener — ask your GP for it explicitly if PHQ-9 misses what you are experiencing.
Grief that has slipped into MDD
DSM-5 removed the bereavement exclusion in 2013 — grief and major depression can coexist. Grief usually waxes and wanes around the loss; MDD usually does not. If two months after the loss you cannot identify positive memories at all, find your worthlessness extending beyond the specific bereavement, or have lost functional capacity that was intact before, a clinical screen is appropriate.
Your next step
The 5-question preview above is informed by the PHQ-9 but is not a clinical PHQ-9. The full Depression Screener plus a conversation with a primary-care doctor or therapist are the appropriate next steps if two or more signs match your situation.
Take the full Depression Screener