ERN

Almost everyone feels down from time-to-time.  Getting a bad grade, losing a job, having an argument – even a rainy day can bring on feelings of sadness.  Sometimes there’s no trigger at all – it just pops up out of the blue. Then circumstances change, and those sad feelings disappear.

Clinical Depression is different.  It’s a medical disorder, and it won’t go away just because you want it to. It lingers for at least two consecutive weeks and can have a lot of different symptoms: a low mood, loss of interest in things you’d normally enjoy, changes in appetite, feeling worthless or excessively guilty, sleeping either too much or too little, poor concentration, restlessness or slowness, loss of energy, or recurrent thoughts of suicide. If you have at least five of those symptoms, according to psychiatric guidelines, you qualify for a diagnosis of depression.

Learn more by watching the TED-Ed Lesson What is depression? - Helen M. Farrell