How is depression diagnosed?

How is depression diagnosed? A series of questions? Running tests? How is it diagnosed?

you can always feel it yourself.
some people mightt say how could anyone get depression, , or god, id be tooo happy to get depression,
but its actually an illness.. it can happen to anyone. if we had the characteristics to prevent it like being happy or being optimistic, then we would be able to prevent cancer..

basically, ive had depression before, and it sort of feels like a grey hazze over your life, and days run into eachother, sunlight and nightime, and all you want to do is sleep.. and you dont want to do anything,, or all you want to do is be doing something different.. you feel like your crazy and you dont know who you are or what your meant to be doing and everyhting like that..
so yeah . hope that helpd :)

Depression is diagnosed through the symptoms you experience. When you see a doctor and describe your symptoms, they often make their diagnosis. They check for family history. It is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain and often medication is prescribed to correct these imbalances

If you wonder if you are depressed and have been wondering for a long time you probably are. You can go to your MD and get help. They can write an RX and refer you to a psychiatrist or psychologist if needed. The most important thing is to do something about what you are feeling. There is so much that can be done to help out with what you are feeling.

There are no medical tests; there are, however, screenings that help along with your description of the symptoms. If you go to psychcentral.com, you can take a depression inventory and see how you score.