What Is Depression?

Depression affects everything 

Depression is a phenomenon of mind and body. It affects everything: our hunger, our sex drive, our sleep, and even our bowel movements. Depression can influence how we feel in the morning and how we feel at night. It also impacts how long it takes us to recover from being sick, how frequently we get sick, and how we feel when we’re sick (and how we feel when we get “better”).

Beyond the physical, depression also consumes our thoughts. Fundamentally, depression is less of a state of sadness than it is a state of perpetual, often aching numbness.

Depression is not only many things but it is also deeply specific to each person who is struggling. Some depressed people also can feel good, sometimes even great. Others can find feeling good quite rare. Sometimes depressed people seem sad about everything; others seem sad about nothing.

Is depression biological or situational (or both)?

The matter of nurture versus nature is complicated with depression. There is evidence that depression runs in families but, of course, this is tricky to delineate. Depressed parents often fail to meet some of the essential affective needs of their children (though not nearly all depressed parents fall short in these ways).

The truth is no one really understands the biological mechanisms of depression. Some may have heard the serotonin depletion theory of depression. While it’s clear that serotonin plays a key role in affective health, the mechanisms are themselves not so well understood. Furthermore, the mechanisms through which popular antidepressants work are not well understood either.

Can depression last forever? 

It can and sadly, often does. This typically occurs because no one offers help or there is a belief that depression is a part of someone’s personality. It can also be the case that medications don’t work (or stop working) and people who are suffering simply give up.

There are other instances where depression comes and goes. While we think of depression as an experience that persists even when things are going well, things can be situationally positive and cause the experience of depression to lift. Good fortune, hard work paying off, success, and a good season can cause the lived experience to be better for a time. It’s important not to assume that such an experience means an individual is no longer “suffering from depression” even if, for a while, they’re in relief. It's similar to the way that cancer can be in remission and yet still be cancer and require treatment.

Other times, depression can seem to go away “on its own.”

Can depression really go away “on its own”?

There are two seemingly contradictory answers to this question: Of course not and yes. By this, we mean that people certainly have the experience of coming out of depression; we might say, “growing out of it.” Depression, for some, accompanies a season of life or a phase of struggle.

However, the efforts of the person suffering from depression and those who provide care and guidance aren’t to be dismissed. Most people strive to improve their lives independent of therapy or medication, sometimes even without an awareness of the powerful, brave fight they’re leading. Depression might come and go, passing with great struggle, without ever being named outright as “depression.”

Is there a cure for depression?

It depends on what we mean by “cure.” We can cure the underlying causes more than the depression itself (While certainly there are people who recover from depression and get to a place where they are not so depressed anymore, they are still prone to depression). Whether we understand that experience as a “cure,” the idea that depression is “just something you’re going to have to live with” just isn’t true. If you’re being told that, it’s a sign you might not be in the right therapy.