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depression

Can one be depressed (clinically speaking, I mean) without being sad?

Re: depression

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines a depressed person as experiencing feelings of sadness, helplessness and hopelessness.

So no, I wouldn't think so. :)

Re: depression

Yes, but it goes on to say:

This disorder is characterized by the presence of the majority of these symptoms:

  • Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, as indicated by either subjective report (e.g., feels sad or empty) or observation made by others (e.g., appears tearful). (In children and adolescents, this may be characterized as an irritable mood.)


  • Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day


  • Significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain (e.g., a change of more than 5 of body weight in a month), or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day.


  • Insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day

  • Psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day


  • Fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day


  • Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day


  • Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day

  • Recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.


Maybe sad isn't present in all cases?

Re: depression

It's an interesting idea. Even if you cut out all the ones that refer specifically to emotion, you still have a majority.

Re: depression

Someone asked a similar question on Yahoo! Answers.

"Yes it's very very possible for you to be depressed and not to feel it. A lot of time depressed people don't feel any thing, They just cut themselves off from the emotions because it hurts to much. I know because when my depression get really bad that's what I do. So yes it's very very possible. IF it bothers you see if you can find someone to talk to about some of the issues or write a journal that might help."

AAFP.org says:

"Older adults often deny feeling sad while exhibiting other characteristics of depression. Elderly patients with depression who do not present with sadness often have unexplained somatic complaints and exhibit a sense of hopelessness."
http://www.aafp.org/afp/990901ap/820.html

So it can be possible to experience depression without sadness, instead they suffer from hopelessness, although apparently 'rare'.

:)

Another article:
National Center for BioTechnology Information - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9158577
'Depression Without Sadness'

Re: depression

I think depression is an overused label for what seems to be everyone who is not happy. Looking at the world at large and the way it's headed... i sometimes think that only the ignorant can be truly happy. But i sidestepped the question, sorry. I think people can be truly depressed without being sad because sadness implicates that something is wrong that you can't seeminly fix. If you have a life that grants you happy things, you don't nescessarily feel sad but you can also be depressed due to your enviroment, crappy job, failing marriage etc.

I'm just grasping at straws here to be honest as depression is something i actually can't really comprehend.

Re: depression

The Doctor has a very good page on this called am I depressed?

This is well worth checking out.

He has another good page on psychosis, about which Toby gave wrong information in another thread. You should read it Toby. Then when you give answers here you at least will have psychosis right.

Re: depression

Great answer Ricardo. I already read those pages and they really explain things which unfortunately are misunderstood by many people, including some who have posted incorrect information here. Yes, it is kind to try to help someone with a question, but giving wrong information will do more harm than good.

The depression page has good links to depression self-evaluation tests online.

Thanks again Doctor Robert for making this space available and for your really excellent website.

Re: depression

How did I get Psychosis wrong Ricardo?

I'm not sure you know what you're talking about, he's talking about 'Thought Disorder' not psychosi,. thought disorder is often considered a symptom of psychotic mental ilness, but it's not psychosis he's talking about.

Re: depression

Toby,

Formal thought disorder is a form of psychosis. There are many forms of psychosis, and thought disorder is one of them. I think you misunderstand that when you try to make a distinction between formal thought disorder and psychosis. It is really simple. Thought disorder is one characteristic symptom of schizophrenia which is psychosis, and there are other characteristic symptoms of psychosis as well, such as catatonia, paranoia, ideas of reference, etc. But it is all psychosis.

You went wrong in your answer to "intrusive thoughts" when you wrote that,

"Thoughs only start to move towards Psychosis if you think a higher entity or 'God' is planting those images/thoughts inside your head or guiding you to commit those acts."

That is incorrect. Read the Doctor's page on thought disorder, and you will see that schizophrenia can be characterized by thought disturbances in many different ways, not just if someone thinks a god is planting the thoughts.

Please try not to put misinformation out on a page that is meant to help people with serious questions. If you speak with authority, as you seem to like to do a lot, check your facts first.

Re: depression

Actually I was quoting Dr Joesph M Carter, PHD when I said that.

"You begin to move in the direction of a psychosis when you start believing these thoughts are not yours, that they have been inserted into your brain by a higher being, that you are being given commands for some significant purpose"

And that is true.

As for Thought Disorder being psychosis, All I've read is that it's only a symptom, but hey, you learn something new every day. :)

Re: depression

Hexi
i sometimes think that only the ignorant can be truly happy


I'm allowed to derail my own thread?

I think that all the time. Maybe it's a grass is always greener thing, but all the really ignorant - not uneducated but actually not particularly intelligent - people I see seem so ... happy.

Re: depression

Agreed, but it also makes sense. The less you know, the less you know about how ugly the world really is. "Ignorance is bliss" and all that. :) The thread was already derailed, anyways!

Re: depression

Am I allowed to take part in the derailment of your thread? :-)

Unknown
I think that all the time. Maybe it's a grass is always greener thing, but all the really ignorant - not uneducated but actually not particularly intelligent - people I see seem so ... happy.


You know, this hasn’t been my experience. On one level, I see unconscious people as asleep, fully and completely immersed in what I think of as their dream world. It’s a dream because they believe almost every thought that appears within their minds and they confuse that running internal commentary with their entire sense of self. Out of this comes society as we see it. And I don’t see truly peaceful people populating this society. I see people who are happy when things appear to go the way they think it should go on occasion. But I also see how precarious it is to attach one’s well being to getting what one wants. I see the arguments over trivial matters. (And it’s almost all trivial.) I see the wars, the displaced poor, the sick in need of care that isn’t readily available. The fact that there are underprivileged in a world where other people have so much. I see in America people who have access to so much and who are yet still struggling with meaninglessness and despair and confusion and bigotries of all shapes and sizes. Greed, indifference, hatred, violence of all kinds, fear, loneliness, and yes, depression. I see it all around me. On one level. On the deepest level though, there is nothing but well being and peace and yes love. But on the level most people are used to seeing things, there is a lot of pain. This is why I don’t see the unconscious as mostly happy.

Why do you see what you call "the ignorant" as happy Unknown?

Re: depression

Ecce Homo


Why do you see what you call "the ignorant" as happy Unknown?


Here is an example. Let's say one buys a new pair of shoes, he/she is happy that he/she can run with good shoes now. Would the person still be happy about his new shoes if they knew that in order for them to get those shoes cheaply, someone, somewhere has to work 12h/day 7d/week, getting paid less than a dollar/day? No, they would feel ashamed or justify it with nonsense but since they don't know, it doesn't weigh in their mind.

EDIT: I just derailed the thread even more, sorry! I'll stop now, honest! :)

Re: depression

Awareness is quite painful to me, at times. I can't share it.

When I casually observe someone in some setting, I often know what they will do before they do. I see the eventuality of the situation. I know how it will play out. I recognize some unexpected bit of chaos my alter the outcome, but typically things progress as I predict. And I hate that. Most of the time, I try not to see. Well, actually, some of the patterns are comforting to see play out again and again, and some are not. I'm thinking of the ones which are not at the moment.

And perhaps happy is the wrong word. Blissfully unaware is better.

These people seem to have no control over their lives, just drifting along with whatever happens, neither overly startled by injustice nor particularly impressed with success, unless it's somehow personal. I don't mean they don't have emotions. They feel pain when injured or can't meet selfish desires. They feel joy when they get things or whatever. But the real weight of the universe never enters their minds, doesn't weigh down on their shoulders. They've just relinquished all control and go wherever the system directs, never questioning whether they belong or fit in, content just to be any part of it.

Ask most anyone, he or she will say greed is bad. But no one feels a responsibility to end it. I do. I wish I didn't, but I do. And I both know that it could be done and that it won't be done, and that is just so frustrating. I'm sure I'm projecting, but I sometimes can't shake the feeling that I would be "happy" if I could relinquish all control like it seems they do and just drift along, waiting to see what happens, not responsible to make it. And so, they seem happy to me. Again, probably the wrong word, especially now that I think about it outloud.


p.s. derail the thread, please. This is far more productive than whether or not one can be depressed and sad or whether or not one has posted incorrect information in a completely other thread. ;)

I know what I'm looking for, but not how to find it. I think it may be here somewhere, or at least parts of it, but I can't find something I don't have unless I happen to see it and realize it's what I was looking for. So, honestly, the original intent of the thread was not to talk about the specific topic of the thread, if that makes any **** sense at all.

Re: depression

That is actually quite interesting. I sometimes tend to interject in events, just to see how the outcome differs from my original assesment with no material gain, purely for amusement.

Another point is that, instead of wanting to change the world i smile when i see where it's headed, how people scream that someone should do something, always expecting someone else to save them and this disgusts me but it is ironic at the same time. If people woulnd't be selfish, ignorant cowards they, themselves, could change the world to be a beatiful place. There wouldn't be a single starving, homeless or curably sick person in the world. Heck, US could accomplish this with the money they've spent on the occupations.

The point of this is, the change has to be collective.

Re: depression

Hexi
That is actually quite interesting. I sometimes tend to interject in events, just to see how the outcome differs from my original assesment with no material gain, purely for amusement.

I forbid myself to interject.

Hexi
Another point is that, instead of wanting to change the world i smile when i see where it's headed, how people scream that someone should do something, always expecting someone else to save them and this disgusts me but it is ironic at the same time. If people woulnd't be selfish, ignorant cowards they, themselves, could change the world to be a beatiful place. There wouldn't be a single starving, homeless or curably sick person in the world. Heck, US could accomplish this with the money they've spent on the occupations.



The point of this is, the change has to be collective.


Yes, sometimes I smile. I am comforted by the familiarity, by the predictability, sometimes even by the futility of it all. But it is not a malicious smile (with me) it is more a smile as if I were sharing a joke with the universe. And sometimes I wonder why no one else around me got the joke.

Re: depression

unknown

I forbid myself to interject.


You're missing out on hilarity, just remember to be subtle.


Yes, sometimes I smile. I am comforted by the familiarity, by the predictability, sometimes even by the futility of it all. But it is not a malicious smile (with me) it is more a smile as if I were sharing a joke with the universe. And sometimes I wonder why no one else around me got the joke.


It's the inherent absurdity of it all. I like absurd and over-the-top humour.

Re: depression

LOL:)

I like absurd humor a great deal too. It's amusing, like I think the definition of amusing indicates it should feel, if you know what I mean.

Grosse Point Blank is maybe one of the funniest movies in the world to me.