Depression Emojis for Exactly What Depression Feels Like
Using a depression emoji is a way for people to express their depressed mood. For the millions of people with major depression, it can be a challenge to put into words what it feels like to suffer from depression. That’s where the depression emoji comes in. It’s a physical representation of what depression symptoms look and feel like. We can all relate to the feelings that come from a sad face or a crying face.
Depression emojis can also help portray the daily struggle of living with depression. They can be especially helpful in communicating those feelings of depression when others around that person cannot or do not relate to or understand what it is like to feel depressed on a continuous basis. On the other hand, a depression emoji can establish a bond between a person with depression and others who have the same illness. There’s an instant understanding of what the person is going through.
5 Depression Emojis
There are currently over 2,000 different emojis, a number that offers a whole new way for people to communicate what they are thinking and feeling. Of these 2,000 emojis, there are a few that are especially useful for explaining what it is like to live with depression:
- Zipper-Mouth Face. The zipper-mouth face can be a powerful emoji to express what it is like to suffer from the stigma of depression. Many people are afraid to talk about their depression in fear of facing some sort of reprisal. This depression emoji, by zipping the mouth shut, illustrates the silence that many people who suffer from depression live in, as they go about their lives doing the best they can to manage how they think and feel on their own. Despite the great efforts to spread awareness about depression and mental health, many with depression are afraid of losing friends, family, and their jobs if it becomes known that they have a mental illness. This keeps them living in fear and prevents them from getting the help, support and treatment they need.
- Downcast Face with Sweat. Anxiety often accompanies depression. Anxiety is an emotion that is challenging to cope with, as it causes a great strain on how the symptoms of stress and depression are managed. The more anxious a person feels, the more depressed and hopeless they become. “My life will never get better.”
- Unamused Face is a depression emoji that portrays how people who suffer from depression no longer enjoy things that they used to enjoy. When a person suffers from depression, it is hard to feel joy or contentment in things that are fun, enriching or stimulating. Even efforts from friends and family to help the depressed person feel better fall short, which can result in the affected person being isolated or withdrawing from his or her loved ones.
- Face with Head-Bandage. Suffering from depression causes a person’s mind to go in many different directions. It is often difficult to concentrate, focus, and comprehend things that require attention to detail. Depression can result in physical symptoms, like headaches, dizziness, and racing negative thoughts. Ultimately, the face with head-bandage depression emoji represents the pain and dysfunction that occurs in the brain of a person who is affected by depression.
- Crying Face. Depression is most popularly understood as feelings of extreme sadness. What many do not understand is that sadness and crying are only symptoms of depression, and to be sad does not mean to be depressed. A person who suffers from major depression suffers from much more than sadness and equating depression to feeling sad fails to encompass all that it means for a person to suffer from depression. It is important to understand that sadness and crying are symptoms of depression, not what it means to have major depression.
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APA Reference
Guarino, G.
(2021, December 30). Depression Emojis for Exactly What Depression Feels Like, HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, November 4 from https://www.healthyplace.com/depression/symptoms/depression-emojis-for-exactly-what-depression-feels-like