Depression is NOT sadness

Depressed and you just don't get it.

Every adult has experienced sadness. And yes, it is a miserable thing. But sadness is not depression. True depression is a mismatched jumble of feelings and emotions that don't require a trigger and are often debilitating. It is the brain's chemistry messing with you and each person experiences, expresses depression uniquely.

What I know to be true is the fastest way to get folks to stare blankly or just walk away is tell them you are depressed. With all that is written and with all the opinions on what to say to depressed people, most people just don't have a clue or worse, they do have a clue and just don't want to deal with you.

Plus, there isn't anything anyone can say to change the brain chemistry. Sure we can take drugs to change the chemistry of our brains. But that changes a lot of other things as well. The side effects, the long-term damage, the dependency, for many, is not worth it. Or it is worth it but the drugs stop working.

Many just wait it out. Every one of us who suffers from depression deals with it differently with varying degrees of success. Many of us isolate ourselves. We just don't have the stamina to socialize. Sure, we make 'dates' but we mostly cancel them. Sure, we need and want friends, but we just don't have the emotional energy to interact or behave, our filters don't work.

And then there is Anthony Bourdain.

From the Internet:
In order to understand what clinical depression is, one must first understand that depression can exist in a continuum of severity, ranging from milder, more transient depressed mood states to more severe, chronic forms. When depression passes into the more severe end of the spectrum and requires professional treatment, it can be referred to as clinical depression.

What Causes Clinical Depression?

The causes of clinical depression are not completely understood, but it is believed that several different factors may work together to make an individual more prone to developing it. Some studies point to the fact that depression may be an inherited condition in which certain mood-regulating chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters do not work properly.