The world since ages kept using the word ‘sad’ to express their emotion of feeling low. Interestingly, the other term for being sad is Depression. A sad person wakes up from that feeling and fluctuates to being normal if he/she is offered a movie ticket or taken out for relief or diverted with some activity. But people with clinical depression this doesn’t work. This understanding of being sad termed as depression overlaps the concept of being Clinically Depressed. Are being depressed and clinically depressed the same or different?
Clinical Depression back in history was called Melancholia, a state of being severely sad, but now we call it Major Depressive Disorder. Though the terms and feelings for both being depressed and clinically depressed sound the same, the behaviours associated with these two are quite different. The understanding of this difference lays the path to understand a Clinically Depressed person.
ETV Bharat Sukhibhava spoke to Psychiatrist Dr. MS Reddy, Asha Hospital, Hyderabad to understand more about clinical depression and its symptoms. He says, “Depression is a normal emotion of feeling sad or low. Everybody feels it at some point. But clinical depression is a prolonged emotion of being sad with much severity,”.
“Clinically Depressed people tend to feel sad for a longer period, most of the hours of the day and most of the days in a week, at least for two weeks (how it’s diagnosed) and then we call it a major depressive disorder,”, opined Dr. MS Reddy.
Symptoms include losing interest in everything, not feel like eating or talking to someone or not falling asleep, feeling hopeless, helpless, and worthless and every feeling of negative and inferiority. These symptoms stay for a prolonged period and only then we say its depressive disorder. But symptoms of being sad/depressed and not interested to do anything go away after some time, while symptoms of clinical depression is always prolonged.
It’s always important that people understand depression and clinical depression rightly. Though the feeling of being sad is the same in both the scenarios, clinically depressed people are in a much severe condition than people who are sad. “A person’s mood can fluctuate and become normal while a person who is suffering from depressive disorder finds it hard to be normal”, clears Dr. MS Reddy.
A person who is behaving normal and active but suddenly loses interest in everything and feels sad for a majority of time is the major and first symptom of someone being clinically depressed.
“Identifying people who are clinically depressed can be quite tiring sometimes”, says Dr. MS Reddy. These people exhibit the symptoms and signs like those who are being sad. But is that all? What is the solution? He says, “People with clinical depression have the symptoms for a prolonged period while people who are sad or dull gets back from those feelings after few hours or some time”.
The key point to differentiate the one who is depressed and who is clinically depressed is, the first has the symptoms for a lesser period and less intensity, while the latter has it for a prolonged period with severe intensity. Understanding being depressed and having a depressive disorder calls in much attention of the people of these days. The only way to sort this by a closer and clear understanding and observation of the symptoms a person possesses. A person who is doing fine suddenly gets sad and loses interest and that’s when we call for attention to identify such people as Clinically Depressed.
