3 ms·

I feel compelled to ask this though: As a famous story goes, anyone naïve self-diagnosing might incorrectly conclude to have been inflicted by multiple disparat

I feel compelled to ask this though: As a famous story goes, anyone naïve self-diagnosing might incorrectly conclude to have been inflicted by multiple disparate diseases. I haven't been able to figure out what could to tell me conclusively if someone (I or anyone else) is clinically depressed at all. I mean, is feeling of sadness depression? Sadness depends so much on what's happening at any given point in time, and some days are more sad than happy and vice versa. Sometimes, there's sadness associated with a context (may be showing up at work evokes sadness due to recent failures in professional life, say), but coming home to your kid doesn't, or may be it's the reverse, and may be you are suddenly, unpromptedly are reminded of an incident or a regret that sadness comes gushing in... Is this depression, or normal emotional response to persistent stress? I guess, what I'm trying to say is, reading up on depression makes me feel like I may be depressed, but then how can anyone know for sure that they aren't misinterpreting or misattributing the symptoms?

diehunde 6y ago
Well think of this. When you are sad, do you feel like killing yourself is an option to stop that feeling?
- metabagel 6y ago
  This isn’t necessary for depression. I was severely depressed, and I never seriously considered taking my own life. I did sometimes feel like it would be OK if I ceased to exist.
  - diehunde 6y ago
    I didn't say seriously considered. I'm talking about what it's known as suicidal ideation. You can be sad and down for weeks because you got rejected from your favorite company but I would be surprised if some suicidal thought pop into your head because of this. For people that are depressed is not rare at all. Even people with anxiety disorders have them often.
akiselev 6y ago
Depression is really a large group of diseases/conditions just like cancer with a broad range of different forms, except we haven't yet developed any way of conclusively delineating the different forms like we do with leukemia, melanoma, lymphoma, lung cancer, etc. Just like most adults develop some form of cancer - in the form of benign tumors - most adults will experience some form of depression as they age, mostly as short bouts of general sadness. A small but significant fraction, however, will develop forms of depression that are the equivalent of 'metastatic' cancer that are far more serious and threatening. When people talk about "clinical depression," they usually mean the latter group that have qualitatively more serious symptoms like suicidal ideation and extended periods of depression which lead to ongoing negative consequences like trouble forming and maintaining relationships and jobs, sleeping far more than normal, etc.
metabagel 6y ago
In my case, I was moderately depressed for many years. It took being severely depressed for me to do something about it. My suggestion is don’t wait for that. If you think you may be depressed, you’re probably depressed. Make it a priority to address that. Life is difficult. We don’t need to be happy, but we need to be able to be content with what we have and where we are. I feel like directing our compassion and our focus outwards to others helps put our own troubles into perspective. But, we also need to care for ourselves.

diehunde 6y ago

Well think of this. When you are sad, do you feel like killing yourself is an option to stop that feeling?

metabagel 6y ago
This isn’t necessary for depression. I was severely depressed, and I never seriously considered taking my own life. I did sometimes feel like it would be OK if I ceased to exist.
- diehunde 6y ago
  I didn't say seriously considered. I'm talking about what it's known as suicidal ideation. You can be sad and down for weeks because you got rejected from your favorite company but I would be surprised if some suicidal thought pop into your head because of this. For people that are depressed is not rare at all. Even people with anxiety disorders have them often.

akiselev 6y ago

Depression is really a large group of diseases/conditions just like cancer with a broad range of different forms, except we haven't yet developed any way of conclusively delineating the different forms like we do with leukemia, melanoma, lymphoma, lung cancer, etc. Just like most adults develop some form of cancer - in the form of benign tumors - most adults will experience some form of depression as they age, mostly as short bouts of general sadness. A small but significant fraction, however, will develop forms of depression that are the equivalent of 'metastatic' cancer that are far more serious and threatening. When people talk about "clinical depression," they usually mean the latter group that have qualitatively more serious symptoms like suicidal ideation and extended periods of depression which lead to ongoing negative consequences like trouble forming and maintaining relationships and jobs, sleeping far more than normal, etc.

metabagel 6y ago

In my case, I was moderately depressed for many years. It took being severely depressed for me to do something about it. My suggestion is don’t wait for that. If you think you may be depressed, you’re probably depressed. Make it a priority to address that. Life is difficult. We don’t need to be happy, but we need to be able to be content with what we have and where we are. I feel like directing our compassion and our focus outwards to others helps put our own troubles into perspective. But, we also need to care for ourselves.