What is depression?

Depression is a disorder that involves feelings of sadness lasting for two weeks or longer, often accompanied by a loss of interest in life, hopelessness, and decreased energy. Such distressing feelings can affect one's ability to perform the usual tasks and activities of daily living.

Depression is not a weakness of character. Being depressed does not mean that a person is inadequate. It means the person has a medical illness that is just as real as diabetes or ulcers. Like other medical disorders, clinical depression should not be ignored or dismissed. A clinically depressed person cannot simply "snap out of it" any more than a person with an ulcer could simply will it away.


But depression is highly treatable in the vast majority of cases. Up to 90% of depressed people respond positively to one treatment or another. Sometimes psychotherapy or counseling is all that is needed, but there is also a wide array of effective antidepressant medications and other alternatives. Sometimes, the first treatment will work well. At other times, a second or even a third treatment trial is required to find the best (most effective, most easily tolerated) treatment for the individual patient.




Clinical depression, is an umbrella term used to describe the most common forms of depression, which include:


Major depression, also known as melancholia or unipolar depression, can last up to a year if not treated. A person experiencing an episode of major depression will experience some physical problems, such as headaches, other aches and pains, or digestive upset, for example, in addition to emotional difficulties.


Bipolar disorder,  once called manic depressive illness, causes mood swings that soar to unusual elation, and then plummet to depression. A person with severe bipolar disorder may also see or hear things that are not there or experience paranoia (an incorrect feeling that they are in danger from others).

Dysthymia, is a chronic (ongoing), low-grade depression. It often begins in childhood or adolescence and may last for many years in adulthood if not treated. It is a less severe form of clinical depression, but at times it can be almost as disabling as major depression.

Seasonal affective disorder, (SAD) is a form of depression thought to be triggered by a decrease in exposure to sunlight. In the Northern Hemisphere, the condition usually occurs in late fall and winter, when daylight hours are short, and it is more common in geographical areas that have four clearly defined seasons.

The Types of Clinical Depression

Clinical depression is an extreme form of depression where the sufferer’s life, well-being and activities are extremely disrupted and affected. It is quite normal for a person to feel low, sad, gloomy or otherwise unhappy at times; but these sadnesses come and go, they tend to be situational and reactive and do not predominate. When depressed, these states of unhappiness become more regular and ‘defining; when clinically depressed, the person’s ability to function as a ‘normal’ human being is severely impaired, and the individual may feel tired, unhappy, unmotivated and generally apathetic on an ongoing basis. It will likely result in negative thought patterns and possibly even alcohol or other substance abuse. This is called ‘clinical’ since it can be clinically diagnosed as depression.


Another name for clinical depression is unipolar depression. This term makes reference to another form of depression called bipolar, or ‘manic’ depression. What distinguishes these two forms is that a person suffering from the bipolar type will display mania followed by depression wher as unipolar affective disorder is characterised by depression alone. Whether a person is suffering from one or the other is not always entirely obvious since the pattern of the manic disorder is not a regular one. Additionally, other disorders such as delirium, dementia and psychosis also feature symptoms which are similar to depression and can, therefore, be misdiagnosed.


A Major Depressive Disorder, or clinical depression, is one which is characterised by an extremely depressed state which continues over a two week period or longer. This may be a single episode or else recur over a longer period and even over a lifetime. Where the occurrences of depression are preceded or followed by a highly elevated mood or mania then it is considered to be bipolar; where the mood never shifts from the depressed ‘pole’ then it is unipolar. The state of clinical depression can be further differentiated into three subtypes and characterised by the absence or presence of psychosis: There is Depression with Melancholy, Depression with Atypical Features, and Depression with Psychosis. The first features the loss of pleasure in most things and an inability to react to pleasant stimulation. The second is the most common and is characterised by increased weight gain or over eating, excessive sleep or hypersomnia, and oversensitivity to remarks or perceived rejection. The third type, Depression with Psychotic features, might include delusions or hallucinations related to the person’s mood.