Depression

The Signs and Symptoms of Depression: How to Fight Depression by Knowing Your Enemy

The Vocabulary of War:  Be Clear About Your Words Learning how to fight depression involves getting a crystal-clear picture of the battle lines.  While there are many types and varieties of depression,  they all fall into one of two large categories.  The first kind of depression is what most people mean when they say something [...]

Read the full article →

When Do the Signs and Symptoms of Depression Become a Clinical Syndrome?

Many people suppose that depression is simply a feeling of overwhelming sadness. If someone has a terrible week, they might say, “I was so depressed.” But what they really mean is “I was very sad.” What doctors mean by the word depression is not the same as the common usage of the term. But if [...]

Read the full article →

The Signs and Symptoms of Depression and Trauma

How Psychological Trauma Leads to the Signs and Symptoms of Depression At what point do painful memories cause the signs and symptoms of depression or anxiety? The following checklists are from the standard diagnostic manual used by mental health professionals. It’s a summary of the criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder of PTSD. Posttraumatic Stress is [...]

Read the full article →

Self Help for Clinical Depression: What it Feels Like at Square One

Author’s note:  I wrote this article a few years ago.  I am posting it again because I think that many approaches to self help for clinical depression trivialize the overwhelmingly dark nature of the beast of clinical depression… especially if it is of the more severe variety.  If a person is going to muster the [...]

Read the full article →