

These days, depression is an enormously misunderstood malady. Many people who are feeling genuinely sad - and sad for a genuinely reasonable cause; they have lost their girlfriend, or their job, or experienced the recent death of a loved one - self-diagnose themselves as “depressed.” These people do not understand “depression” beyond the oft-used societal catchall term. Depression is a real disease, with a real definition. It is a feeling of hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness that continues for at least two weeks and prevents a person from functioning at their normal capacity. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association to aid clinicians in the diagnosis of disease, when a person suffers from at least five of the following nine symptoms at the same time, they may be more than simply sad and would do well to seek help for what is a treatable medical condition.