Joy and the Journey

No one is exempt from feeling depressed at some point in life. Depression is the brain’s way of taking protective measures against the psychologically defeating things we all experience. However, major depressive disorder is different from normal sadness over sad events. MDD is defined as “a mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities."

You have major depressive disorder if you have had more than half of the following symptoms, every day, for most of the day, for longer than 2 weeks.

•    Depressed mood
•    Markedly diminished interest in all, or nearly all, activities
•    Significant weight loss or weight gain, or a decrease or increase in appetite every day
•    Insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping too much)
•    Psychomotor agitation or retardation (wringing hands, meaninglessly moving objects around,    pacing, slowness of thought, or an unaccountable inability to do anything requiring energy)                 •    Fatigue or loss of energy
•    Feelings of worthlessness
•    Excessive or inappropriate guilt
•    Diminished ability to think or concentrate
•    Indecisiveness
•    Recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicide ideation, specific plans of suicide, or suicide attempts

Major depressive disorder is a true medical illness. There are a wide variety of treatments, but nearly all depressions can be cured with persistence. Without treatment, however, depression can worsen with time. See your doctor right away if you have the aforementioned symptoms.

 For more information on depression's causes and treatments, see the navigation bar.