4 ms·
There's still a great deal of stigma around any form of mental illness, even mild and transitory depression or anxiety. It's difficult, after centuries of decla
by devindotcom 11y ago
There's still a great deal of stigma around any form of mental illness, even mild and transitory depression or anxiety. It's difficult, after centuries of declaring people "mad," to think that one can be mentally ill as one is ordinarily ill - with the mental equivalent of a cold or flu or allergies. I've had to help friends and family with this idea myself.
Yet people eagerly adopt monikers like claustrophobic and OCD, and admit to an irrational fear of heights or spiders. Depressed is a household word, but we are afraid to use its real meaning. It's a strange conundrum.
An interesting historical perspective on madness can be found in Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," more specifically the introduction.
- Chinjut 11y agoFor clarification, what is the distinction between the household usage and real meaning of "depressed"?
- arebop 11y agoI think the two key elements that are often missing when people use the term casually are anhedonia and persistence. The wikipedia article has details about the accepted clinical definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder
- PebblesHD 11y agotl;dr people who say 'oh I've been a bit depressed lately' after having a bad week may or may not be suffering from the mental illness known as depression, which is characterized by long term feelings of sadness, helplessness etc. and which generally interfere with the everyday life of the sufferer. Depression in terms of the mental illness is much more than just 'feeling sad', and involves many more psychological aspects and outward impacts on the persons life.
- a3n 11y agoAll true, but there is situational depression too, which isn't necessarily long term, as it goes way when the situation fades or dulls, but it is nonetheless painful and dangerous.
- CmonDev 11y agoThey just need a powerful lobby - one day depression/anxiety/schizophrenia will be declassified as disorders - just like it happened to homosexuality.