The Great Depression: A Definition Of Depression

How We Define Depression Depression is a word of many meanings and can be defined in diverse ways for different people. Depression can be defined as a serious, long-term condition that people wish they could get out of. However, One could even say that, at times, depression is a natural and possibly even healthy occurrence. If we don’t ever feel gloomy now and again, then how could we ever differentiate feeling happy from sad? I believe the main idea of how people view depression is a condition that all humans experience at some point during their life. When I hear the word depression, or when someone tells me they are feeling depressed, I do not automatically assume that they are suicidal. Some people might consider this because they
involuntarily think of clinical depression. I think depression, for most people, is a temporary funk or feeling low from the usual downfalls in life that we all face. In today’s society, for example, many people get a divorce. This is a rough time in a family’s life. When my parents divorced no one in my family became clinically depressed to the point where they needed medication, but we were all hurt by the loss of the happy family we once had, making us temporarily depressed until time could heal us back to normal. Here are some definitions of depression.
According to the Collins English Dictionary the psychiatric definition of depression is, “a condition of overall emotional glumness and retreatment from social activities; an immense sadness extended over a period of time.” Other definitions for depression consist of a general sense of melancholy or a declining in the surface of something, such as the sinkhole in the surface of the earth. Also, society uses the word depression when the economy is doing badly. For example, “The Great Depression” is coined as an era in American history. These are just some examples of how widely the word depression can be used with different meanings, but mainly it is used in the sense of the mood or clinical
condition. I believe that countless people do not consider clinical depression as an actual illness.
When in reality it is. People with clinical depression don’t just put themselves down because that is their personality; they actually have a chemical imbalance in their brain that takes medication to be treated. This is a serious condition that should not be taken lightly and some just put a blind eye to it and do not take depression completely for what it is. This can be dangerous behavior for one with clinical depression to not be taken seriously. From my psychology classes in college, I have heard that about one in four Americans will experience depression at some point in their lives. I think that if people treated mental illness like they do physical illness we’d be able to get a lot farther in advancement for treatment for these people. On the flip side of this, just because one says that they are feeling depressed does not mean that they should immediately go visit a psychologist. There are several forms of mild depression such as people becoming temporality depressed during winter moths due to the lack of sunlight. Also, a lot of everyday regularities can lead the average person to depression. The stresses of life, love, and work can sometimes be a heavy load and lead us to be anxious, which then can lead to short-term
depression. Many diverse definitions to the word depression exist in the language of today. It is not a wonder that when this word is said numerous thoughts could come to one’s head. It is important that we understand that different words can have different meanings to different people. In comprehending this fact we can become to have a better sense of understanding people’s thoughts and feelings. If one says that they are feeling depressed, we may not know what they are really feeling inside, but we can know that it is not always a serious mental disorder, but just a feeling of getting bogged-down from life. Works Cited
"depression." Def. 5. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.