Dr. Judith Joseph

So I had to change some of the items on there to match modern day.

And so things that I would ask my patients were, when you eat a meal, do you enjoy it?

Most of my patients who were suffering from high function depression were just eating to live.

They weren't savoring their meals.

Or do you enjoy social interactions?

And some of them would be saying, well, kind of, but most of the times I wish I weren't there or I wish I would just hurry up and get through it.

Do you enjoy intimacy?

And a lot of them were saying no.

And so the simple pleasures in life

are just not exciting you.

They're not bringing that same joy that they once did.

And those are the things that I ask.

Now, I also ask about those other symptoms that I mentioned, the siggy caps of depression, to see if people are experiencing changes in their appetite, their sleep, their energy, guilt, and hopelessness.

And I find that guilt is one of the things that I've noticed a lot with these patients.

There's a guilt if they take a break.

There's this feeling as if they're not producing enough, even though they're producing so much, like producing a podcast, running a business.

It just doesn't feel like enough.

So there's this guilt to keep pushing through and keep making more.

But there's a lack of satisfaction.

So this busying and this guilt that drives people to produce in order to feel worthy is really tied to high functioning depression and overachievers.