Why is depression considered an "illness"?

[Edoli]

Just as the title states.

I often see people treat depression as an illness, instead as an emotion. But which is it? An emotion or an illness? I can see both ways in an argument, which one it is, but I tend to see depression as more of an emotion, more so than an illness. I personally feel that although depression can come with physical symptoms as well as psychical symptoms (ie; constipation, muscular pains without evidence of sickness, insomnia, and etc.), but doesn't all emotions trigger reactions from the body? Like fear would cause sweating, the jitters, and even insomnia?

So why do we call depression, "clinical" depression? Treat it as an illness, as if it's a label that doctors put on their patients and give them medication for...why though?

Tell me what you think, LD.

[Lilikka]

Because sometimes depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. There isn't a lot short of medication can help that kind of depression, which is why it's considered an illness.

[Kai Luna]

I may be wrong, but depression excretes chemicals into your brain that make you more depressed and damage yourself. Like your brain morphing.

Some people cant help but be depressed for no reason at all. Its like reverse random hyperness

[Xiphium Iris]

Depression is an illness (technically a chemical inbalance of hormones in the brain)...but it's being falsely diagnosed nowadays, or even self-induced. ******** emos... stare

[Edoli]

Unsweetened Honey

Depression is an illness (technically a chemical inbalance of hormones in the brain)...but it's being falsely diagnosed nowadays, or even self-induced. ******** emos... stare

So I must be confusing depression and "fake" depression amongst angsty hormonal teens?

But doesn't everybody have a different chemcial make-up in their brain? So how can we safely label such "mental-illnesses"?

[Enigmatic Phantasm]

It can be both. :B

Say someone you love dies. Or some other traumatic event is triggered in your life. Then you're depressed, yeah? But it's a natural emotion, not an illness. When sad things happen, you get sad. That's according to nature.
Sometimes it doesn't take anything sad to happen, but you'll still feel sad randomly due to a variety of internal and external factors. That's still nature. You can even make yourself sad all the time, just like anyone could make themselves happy. Still not a disease.

It's an illness when you have a chemical imbalance that physically alters you inside. It affects your emotions, but is not limited to your emotions, because it extends out to your appetite, ability to sleep, and your ability to even function properly.

Very few people who claim to be clinically depressed actually are, but it is a very real disease.

[Jikde Bonyac]

I think this is exactly one of the problems with modern society : we don't recognize the difference. Feeling blue and depressed is a natural state that everyone gets into occasionally. But actual depression is a clinical condition where the symptoms last for an extremely long time, at least six months. In clinical depression, the misery doesn't alleviate no matter how good life gets; thus, it is a problem with psychology and brain chemistry, not one of just "feeling blue".

I was diagnosed with depression during middle school, and was on various dosages of zoloft until high school. But I don't think I was actually depressed. I think I was thrust into a new school with no friends whatsoever and got picked on daily. I stopped taking the drugs in college, and haven't needed them since.

And then we get people like emos, who are addicted to feeling sorry for themselves. Things only get muddier from there.

[Aekean Fairy]

I have clinical depression and am on medication for it, and let me tell you. It is definitely an illness. It's a lot like having the flu, in a sense-you're just completely miserable, can't get out of bed, you're in a haze constantly, etc.

[1ln]

It's an "ilness" because we're all sick of the emo fags.
neutral

[thclette420]

Unsweetened Honey

Depression is an illness (technically a chemical inbalance of hormones in the brain)...but it's being falsely diagnosed nowadays, or even self-induced. ******** emos... stare

thank you you beat me to it ninja

[Jar of Fireflies]

It can be an emotion, basically like sadness. When you can get over it within a couple hours its a mood. Long term depression is an illness. Nothing in particular triggers it, it's a chemical imbalance in the brain.

[JaddziaDax]

You are mixing your terms up as most people do.

Depression =/= Sadness

Real CLINICAL depression can be caused by several factors one of which includes a chemical imbalance.

There is a difference between feeling sad and unmotivated a lot and actual diagnosed depression.

A psychologist told me that clinical depression doesn't mean that you are sad all the time, but its the act (consciously or unconsciously) of forcefully depressing your emotions so that you won't feel anything at all.

(and as others pointed out it is misdiagnosed a lot)

[interior crocodile gator]

Lilikka

Because sometimes depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. There isn't a lot short of medication can help that kind of depression, which is why it's considered an illness.

Agreed, OP has just been listening to too many emos.


Depression=/=Emo

stare

[Kazaera]

Jikde Bonyac

I think this is exactly one of the problems with modern society : we don't recognize the difference. Feeling blue and depressed is a natural state that everyone gets into occasionally. But actual depression is a clinical condition where the symptoms last for an extremely long time, at least six months. In clinical depression, the misery doesn't alleviate no matter how good life gets; thus, it is a problem with psychology and brain chemistry, not one of just "feeling blue".

Exactly.

I started being depressed when I was fifteen, got diagnosed when I was sixteen, and it was bona fide clinical depression. There is no way on God's green earth that that was a normal emotional reaction to anything. I spent up to nine months at a time incapable of being happy, was horribly miserable, started to hurt myself, oh and don't forget the self esteem.

What people keep forgetting is that one of the /other/ key elements of clinical depression is low self esteem. I don't know why, because that was by far the worst for me. I spent /years/ convinced that I was worth about as much as a cockroach, that everyone would be so much better off if I'd never been born, that all of my friends secretly hated me - obviously, because I was such a horrible person no one could possibly like me - and was pathetically grateful for them for having the saintlike ability to hide their disgust and put up with me anyway... frankly, I think calling clinical depression a "mental illness" is exactly accurate, because I look back on the person that I was then and frankly? I was insane. Those were not normal thought processes.

I actually like to stress the "illness" bit because it is such an important distinction. Feeling down and sad after something happens to you is perfectly normal and valid and not an illness at all. But clinical depression is not feeling upset after your boyfriend dumped you, or down because you have no friends, or whatever. (In fact, I wouldn't even say that depression is feeling sad, per se; I spent a lot of time /not/ miserable. I just didn't spend any of it happy. It was as if my emotions were capped somewhere in the "indifferent" range, meaning that during events where I should have been ecstatic I wound up more "meh"; I even recall no longer being able to remember what feeling happy /was/.) Clinical depression is an /abnormal/ emotional reaction and is a genuine illness.