[Coral Rhedd]

I see sadness as an emotional state and depression as a condition or illness. Many people who are depressed don't like to see their condition characterized as mental illness because of the stigma attached, but it is.

To me grief is a process which has been described many times as having certain emotional attitudes that follow a usual course. Getting stuck in grief is depression.

[Glider]

Depression is the normal reaction to really depressing events. This is acute, adaptive and is known as reactive depression. Clinical depression, on the other hand, occurs without any obvious triggering events, and is chronic. Whether the depression is reactive or clinical, it is always an emotional state. It's the underlying cause that differs.

[Coral Rhedd]

Glider said:

Depression is the normal reaction to really depressing events. This is acute, adaptive and is known as reactive depression. Clinical depression, on the other hand, occurs without any obvious triggering events, and is chronic. Whether the depression is reactive or clinical, it is always an emotional state. It's the underlying cause that differs.

I suspect you are one of our resident experts on these matters. You may even be practicing medicine for all I know, but I am uneasy with the idea that there are no triggering events for clinical depression. How often, for instance, does what later becomes clinical depression start out as reactive depression? How far away in time must an event be in order to not figure as a trigger?

[reverse]

Just a pop in to see if anything interesting has emerged.

Not sure about this.

two observations.

Some people are naturally miserable , while some are naturally sunny in outlook.

Viva la difference makes for a more interesting world.

I like to think that depression is connected to loss.
loss of a loved one.
loss of the potential future that one had dreamed off.
It's similar to knocking out a really important pillar in a building.
Your total view of the world and your expectations and your place in it may crumble in a instant.
Where to start rebuilding that mess?
I do agree with glider (not that my agreement counts for much if you are a trained professional) depression can become a bog or mire, once you are in a severe state like that (for a long duration), it may trap your state of mind there.

Coral I agree with you about cause and effect.
The effect of phobias, for example: fear of water, seem to show me that emotional states can be bought about by events buried deeply below the layers accessible to the conscious mind.
there may actually be a reason for the depression, but it may be complicated and not evident to the sufferer.

then again the brain is just a part of the body and therefore subject to chemical and electrical interaction...and therefore may get to a physical state where it locks itself in a feedback loop and cant get out.

Sometimes a drug is prescribed to reduce the awareness of the depressed state to the mind.
Thus giving the mind a chance to be at peace and build some pleasant moments to walk onward from.

Addiction is a problem.

Why do all the work of using your conscious strength to resolve your state of depression when a pill will do it for you.

well breakfast time on this side of the world.
well, gotta go , I feel hungry.

[YT2095]

Q: how do you feel?


A: a series of nerve endings sends electrical signals to my brain.

[reverse]

Q: how do you feel?

A: squeeze my arm and find out for yourself.
:D

[Glider]

Coral Rhedd said:

I am uneasy with the idea that there are no triggering events for clinical depression. How often, for instance, does what later becomes clinical depression start out as reactive depression? How far away in time must an event be in order to not figure as a trigger?

You are right. Reactive depression can become clinical, and often clinical depression begins as reactive depression; a perfectly normal response to an event/situation, which then gets out of hand and becomes 'habit' so to speak.

What I should have said, to be precise, is that clinical depression doesn't need a triggering event, or at least not one that is obvious and immediate (e.g. the death of a loved one, getting the sack, divorce etc.).

Reverse is right, there are people who have depressive tendencies to begin with. It's a part of their psychological/neurological (depending on your bias) makeup. Even then, in many cases, it could be argued that these tendencies were gained through prior experience. These people tend to remember more negative events in their lives (even though the numbers of negative and positive events are probably the same, as with most people). They tend to catastrophise (i.e. small negative events tend to be seen as major, insurmountable problems), and they tend to have more negative predictions, e.g. good events won't necessarily lead to good outcomes, but bad events will definitely lead to bad outcomes.

In a way, it's a bit like wearing cognitive sunglasses. Normal everyday life that everybody is exposed to gets filtered through these chronically accessible cognitive structures and are interpreted as being that much darker.

However, this in itself isn't depression. People with depressive tendencies just have a lower threshold for depression i.e. are more likely to become depressed, and are more likely to become depressed when subejected to events that wouldn't lead to depression in other people. So another interpretation of 'no triggering event' is 'a comparitively innocuous event that would not normally lead to depression in the majority of people'.

As for time, "How far away in time must an event be in order to not figure as a trigger?", well, time is not really a factor. Resolution is the issue. If an event remains unresolved, then it tends to remain a potential trigger for depression, regardless of the amount of time that passes. 'Time heals' it is said, but specifically this means time provides the opportunity to gain perspective and to come to see the problem in relation to the bigger picture of their overall lives. But if a person avoids thinking about the event at all and just suppresses it, then it will tend to remain as a future risk.

[reverse]

Phonetic veterinary variation.

Q: How do Ewe feel?

A: the Ram seems pretty happy.