What is Depression? Is it an Illness?
What is depression? What is clinical depression, psychotic depression, bipolar disorder, major depression, mood disorder, etc... What can we do with these strange expressions? What is a real definition of depression? How can we catch depression?
What do you find on this page?
The General definition of depression
An illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts, that affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things.Everywhere on the Internet
Here is a very typical answer on the question what is depression, you may find it anywhere on the internet. It can be considered as the classical definition of depression.
If you study this sentence very carefully and you think after it then you should conclude that depression is an illness.
If we go further in reading, we are told that this illness involves the body (eating and sleeping), mood (how do you feel about yourself) and thoughts (how do you think about things).
What can we do with this definition? Will it help us to diagnose depression? Will it really tell us about the essence of depression?
The psychiatric view of depression
From a psychiatric point of view, diagnosis and treatment of depression are the essential questions. Diagnosing an illness requires established list of essential symptoms.
The most established and recognized collection of symptoms and criteria of diagnosis is to be found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) published by the American Psychiatric Association. You may read about depression symptoms here.
The treatment is first of all medicinal treatment, application of antidepressant drugs. However, there other medical treatments in the inventory, as well. Read more about other psychiatric treatment of depression.
The psychiatry has a definite answer of what is depression question: Depression is an illness, diagnosed by the presence of depression symptoms and cured by antidepressant drugs.
The main problem with this approach is the uncertainty of depression signs. Who knows what symptoms are the most important ones? What are the real causes of depression?
The scientific approach
You may find some scientific descriptions, you will read about neurotransmitters, genes, brain areas, serotonin, or some other more exotic expressions.
The most frequent answer of our days is the "brain chemistry" answer. Oh, its' brain chemistry. Everything is brain chemistry, love is brain chemistry, belief is brain chemistry and, of course, depression is brain chemistry as well.
Contemporary science is a material science. Science has great achievements in the terrain mathematics, physics, chemistry, in the lifeless world. But science cannot grasp the life.
Depression is described by material terms, like chemistry, energy, molecules... But depression is a state of a living human being, thus not part of the lifeless world.
The assumption that depression is a disease has been reinforced and perpetuated by biologists, psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies, all of whom have a vested interest - consciously or unconsciously - in the clinical perspective. This might be an appropriate model for the more severe "melancholic" forms of depression that psychiatrists tend to see, but not for the majority of cases of depression. Most depression is dealt with in the GP surgery or resolves itself without a single medical consultation. Most of the time, depression is hidden from view because of the stigma attached to it.Paul Keedwell, psychiatrist
But what is depression in reality?
I've spent 17 years with brain research, I was also involved in the research of new antidepressants. I haven't found anything in the brain which could be regarded as the real cause of depression. I could find some interesting phenomena in the brain which could be the result of depression.
So, what is depression?
Everybody felt or will feel depression during his/her life. Depression is a certain state of our soul. If you observe yourself, if you introspect your soul, you will notice two basic motion. One is the upward movement, often described as elation, high mind, or elevation; while the other is a downward movement, described as depression, down, low spirits, sadness, sorrow, etc.
Clinical depression is not identical with sadness. You can
be sad, you may face tremendous life troubles and still have good
energy and even feel joy.
Depression is slowed down; loss of interest, pain, lack of facial expression,etc. Your whole body is slowed
(depressed) in its function. Thinking and feeling continue to
function but may be slowed down and confused. You
think and feel, feel and think, but cannot do. Your will is cut
off.
Depression is a dysfunction of human soul. Depression is the lack of harmony between thinking, feeling and will; a certain paralysis of will.
Obviously the consequence of psychic dysfunction should appear in the brain, in the tool of human soul, as well.
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