What you should know about depression and how to manage it

How does clinical depression differ from normal sadness?

There are three important questions about depression which I often get asked in my clinical practice:

• How does clinical depression differ from normal sadness?
• What causes depression?
• What cures depression?

 
In today’s post I will answer the first question concerning how depression is defined. In following posts I will answer the other two.

We all experience te occasional few hours or even a few days in which we feel sad, or have the “blues”.  But how is this different from what a mental health professional would diagnose as clinical depression?   The answer is not simple; clinical experience suggests that three factors must be considered: the severity, duration, and context of the mood of sadness.