Sadness & Depression: What Is the Difference?

We all know sadness. It is part of being human.

We experience personal losses -- large and small -- and we feel the losses of others, near and far. If I were to write about the news stories that sadden me, I'd have to stop writing. Sometimes we are so overcome with sadness or grief we wonder how we will ever continue to do normal things again.

And yet we do, perhaps a little at a time. We all know depression to some degree. Normally, when we do feel depressed we know exactly why, and deep down we know that eventually we'll feel better.

What, then, is abnormal about major depression, a psychiatric disorder that can and should be treated?

Often with major depression there is no reason for feeling so low, although an episode certainly can be initiated by an understandable loss. Major depression can hijack your thinking and your body. It can steal your sleep, appetite, and interest in sex. People with severe major depression can feel that they don't deserve to live or want to end their lives to escape their pain. Tragically, in the depths of their despair, some of them often do end their lives.

When I was 15, my friend Steve was at my house when he got the call that his bright, beautiful, and creative 16-year-old sister, Monica, had shot herself in the head and was dead. What was she thinking that she needed to stop so emphatically, so permanently? Years later I came upon Monica's file in the medical examiner's office when I was doing research on suicide among children and adolescents. For my research, it was just another case; for me, personally, it wasn't. Each of the files represented immense pain for the victim of depression and his or her loved ones. It is important to understand major depression so we can recognize it in ourselves or those in our lives.

Saw a true life interview with a professor who suffered from a major depression but failed to kill himself and later with proper medical treatment, he was able to overcome his depression to talk about his story on BBC last week. And he said that he has totally no good reason to be depressed in the first place. He is very rich and he has a very supportive family....but as he aged, he became lonely because his wife has different interests. He felt neglected and when he fell sick with a stroke, his whole world seem to fall apart. That is when his depression really get to him.
He doesn't want pity when people paid more attentions to him due to his stroke and so on until one day....he over-dosed himself with sleeping pills but he was found in time and was rushed to hospital for treatment. Only after that, he was able to understand his condition better together with the family's support and understanding able to overcome his situation. During the interview...he spoke about the "real lows"
he felt and that no one can really understand his feeling at the moment. That is what a major depression can do....if it gets to that point. Very suicidal too.