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Actually, just because there is a reason for you to be depressed doesn't mean that you don't have depression. Depression can cause abnormal responses to life's

Actually, just because there is a reason for you to be depressed doesn't mean that you don't have depression. Depression can cause abnormal responses to life's events. Not to mention the fact that a life event - death of a loved one, death of yourself, or a bad situation - can cause an episode of clinical depression. The basics with mental health is that it needs to be abnormal and/or cause problems doing basic life stuff. So back to your example: Not leaving the bed because your dog died can be a red flag of depression. Or cause it in a few people (death of significant other, parent, or child is probably more likely to cause it though). This is especially true the longer the person has the symptom - none of us would blame a person for taking a couple days off, but you should be able to function at work a few days later. It doesn't matter if obesity is the cause of the depression if the state of mind keeps them from doing self-care. And I don't know why it would be bad to let some terminally sick person to take happy drugs. It seriously doens't matter at this point because they will probably be dead. Might as well enjoy what you can of the rest. This is probably a bad example all around and likely hard to diagnose properly.

athenot 9y ago
Yes, it's a tradeoff for quality of life. Any active medication has side-effects. But if the depression—even though it may have an unknown cause—prevents a person from functioning in life, then the medication might be worth it. But it's a judgement call to be made by the patient, with proper guidance by his/her care team. In many cases, increasing the risk of a severe disease 20 years from now is preferable than losing job/house/life. It's easy to criticize these patients or their care team as doing too little but sometimes, a baby step is the only realistic step that can be taken, and there may even be some urgency associated with it. Having said that of course, it's important to follow-up and continue to dig deeper in what can be done from a mental health perspective. An antidepressor may be the band-aid to regain sanity and some stability, and from that place, the next steps can be taken. The key is to not give up in that journey towards health, but that is easier said than done. Disclaimer: not a doctor, just a patient advocate.
glastra 9y ago
In my opinion, inability to cope with whatever is going on with life is still not depression. It is, however, something that can and should be addressed (possibly through therapy). In fact, I believe using antidepressants for such cases is counter-productive, making people rely on pills to feel alright instead of acquiring the adequate coping mechanisms or mental processes. Giving drugs (whatever their legal status) to terminally ill patients is acceptable, but it's still not treating any illness known as depression.
- rsynnott 9y ago
  > In my opinion, inability to cope with whatever is going on with life is still not depression. It is, however, something that can and should be addressed (possibly through therapy). Okay, so it can be addressed, using therapy, like depression. What would you prefer to call it?

athenot 9y ago

Yes, it's a tradeoff for quality of life. Any active medication has side-effects. But if the depression—even though it may have an unknown cause—prevents a person from functioning in life, then the medication might be worth it. But it's a judgement call to be made by the patient, with proper guidance by his/her care team. In many cases, increasing the risk of a severe disease 20 years from now is preferable than losing job/house/life. It's easy to criticize these patients or their care team as doing too little but sometimes, a baby step is the only realistic step that can be taken, and there may even be some urgency associated with it. Having said that of course, it's important to follow-up and continue to dig deeper in what can be done from a mental health perspective. An antidepressor may be the band-aid to regain sanity and some stability, and from that place, the next steps can be taken. The key is to not give up in that journey towards health, but that is easier said than done. Disclaimer: not a doctor, just a patient advocate.

glastra 9y ago

In my opinion, inability to cope with whatever is going on with life is still not depression. It is, however, something that can and should be addressed (possibly through therapy). In fact, I believe using antidepressants for such cases is counter-productive, making people rely on pills to feel alright instead of acquiring the adequate coping mechanisms or mental processes. Giving drugs (whatever their legal status) to terminally ill patients is acceptable, but it's still not treating any illness known as depression.

rsynnott 9y ago
> In my opinion, inability to cope with whatever is going on with life is still not depression. It is, however, something that can and should be addressed (possibly through therapy). Okay, so it can be addressed, using therapy, like depression. What would you prefer to call it?