Understanding Depression

When I am out doing lecutres or trainings I frequently hear this comment; "We all get depressed, don't we?" The answer to this question is no we don't all get depressed. Let me explain. During the course of most days we all feel various emotions that are part of the human experience. On any given day you might feel angry, sad, happy, hopeful, nervous, excited, or a whole host of other feelings. These feelings, particularly when negative do not define an experience such as being depressed, but rather are the feelings we can all expect to have as part of being alive.

Depression on the other hand is defined by a set of characteristics that are physical, emotional, and cognitively based. Depression is set apart from the normal feelings we all have by its duration and intensity. For example you may feel sadness over an event, but if you aren't suffering from depression that sadness will gradually wane and your ability to continue functioning in your everyday life is not too greatly impacted. Whereas someone who is depressed may experience a bout of sadness for weeks on end and rather than waning the feeling of sadness intensifies and severly limits the person's ability to complete their daily activities.

In addition to feeling down and sad, other criteria for depression include a loss of interest in activities preveiously enjoyed, unintended weight gain or loss, inability to concentrate or make decisions, serious sleep disruption, feelings of worthlessness or unfounded feelings of guilt, significant feelings of agitation or psychomotor retardation (you feel like you are slogging through mud), recurrent thoughts of suicide or death, and fatigue or loss of energy.

At minimum we would expect you to have at least 5 of these symptoms with one of the required symptoms being either significant feelings of sadness or loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities for a minimum of two weeks. We would also expect that this functioning represented a change in your previous way of functioning and we would want to make sure you didn't have any other underlying medical condtion that might be causing your depression.

As you closely examine the criteria used for making a diagnosis of depression you can see that those criteria clearly are different from the ups and downs we all feel from day to day. If you become aware of someone who is depressed or being treated for depression, keep this in mind the next time you want them to just "snap out of it" or "get over it".

In good health!
Mark