However, the risk can increase when a depression begins to lift and their energy begins to return. At high risk are those individuals who have made plans to kill themselves and who seem to have a brighter mood after deciding to do so. People who think and behave this way must often be hospitalized to keep them from harming themselves. If you have been thinking about suicide, you should tell your family and your doctor and seek appropriate help for yourself . Towards a diagnosis of major depression, a mental health professional will evaluate whether a person has repeated thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts with or without a specific plan, or previous suicide attempt.
Delusions are firmly held beliefs that persist despite strong evidence to the contrary.
Hallucinations are sensory experiences that appear real to the person experiencing them, but there is no actual physical stimulus for the perception. Most commonly hallucinations include a person hearing voices or seeing things that are not there. The presence of delusions and hallucinations often interfere with a person's ability to make sound judgments about consequences of their actions and this may put them at risk for harming themselves. Psychotic symptoms are serious and a person in this condition needs immediate medical attention and possibly hospitalization. It often happens that people who are depressed first seek help from their family doctors with complaints of physical symptoms rather than depressed mood.