There are fixed diagnostic criteria for depression. The diagnostic process is not just some doctor asking you if you are occasionally feeling sad. You fill out

There are fixed diagnostic criteria for depression. The diagnostic process is not just some doctor asking you if you are occasionally feeling sad. You fill out a form and get a score which tells to which degree you are depressed, if any. This ranges from normal and functioning, with occasional negative feelings within the normal (i.e. not depressed), to delibitating symptoms: Staying in bed for days straight, finding no joy in any activity, never sleeping properly, unable to relate to the people around you. Depression is usually diagnosed if you have been feeling like this for more than two weeks straight. Psychiatry is not natural science, but the psychiatrists do have their methodology in order.