What is Depression? Definition and Explanation
What is Depression?
We all have a general idea about, ‘what is depression?’ If a person is sad, gloomy or feeling low, he/she is depressed. But when we talk about the disorder of depression, there is a difference.
Feeling sad, despaired, broken, alone or ‘depressed’ are common things in life. You cannot tag a person with a depression disorder because of feeling sad. Every person feels these emotions in his life, when some unhappy, dreary, gloomy, miserable or mournful event happens. This is just depression, the state of being depressed or sad, but if the person is not able to move on after a reasonable time period, that is ‘depression disorder’, which is also called clinical depression.
Clinical depression is a vast topic to cover; to read more about it, read 'CLINICAL DEPRESSION AND TYPES OF DEPRESSION'
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Definition of Depression:
Above is the explanation of depression in laymen’s term. Now after your basic understanding, it is time to go through a proper medical definition of depression. According to MediLexicon’s Medical Dictionary, depression is:
“A mental state or chronic mental disorder characterized by feelings of sadness, loneliness, despair, low self-esteem, and self-reproach; accompanying signs include psychomotor retardation (or less frequently agitation), withdrawal from social contact, and vegetative states such as loss of appetite and insomnia.”
One important thing to be noted here is that a person with clinical depression is not a weak person. Often a depressed person is wrongly perceived as a weak person who cannot stand against the troubles of life and face them. This is a wrong concept and people should not think like this. Clinical depression is an illness – a disorder. Depression works the same way as any other disorder or illness, say, ulcer, cancer, tuberculosis. As a person cannot do much against those disorders and illnesses, a person cannot either stand against depression – clinical depression, without proper treatment.
SUMMARY:
1. Depression is a state of being sad and gloomy.
2. The depression disorder is termed as Clinical Depression.
3. Clinical Depression is not the same as our usual sadness’ feelings. It is a disorder which requires proper attention and treatment.
4. A person with depression disorder is not a weak person. He just suffers from a disorder/illness, upon which he has no command.