Decoding DEPRESSION

Internationally renowned psychiatrist Professor Ian Hickie dispels the old stereotypes and convenient myths about what depression really looks like - and no, it's not the same as sadness

- 

Clinical depression is not a single disease and is accompanied by a wide array of physical symptoms. The most prominent is exhaustion. This debilitating state is not relieved by sleep, rest or other positive interactions with the world. It persists right across the 24-hour sleep-wake cycle and continues, unabated, from day to day.

Other symptoms include muscle aches and pains, headaches, disturbed gastrointestinal function, change in bowel habits and changes in appetite and weight.

Perhaps, most importantly, sadness is not a key feature. One of the most frustrating aspects of spending a great deal of my professional life talking about depression is the continuing need to confront commonly believed “facts” that cause hurt and confusion to those who live with clinical depression. So let’s debunk some of these myths.

It stems from acute trauma While these often result in great distress, grief, sleep disturbance, fears or tears, they have little to do with the onset of clinical depression. Clinical depression didn’t start yesterday when you lost your job or your partner walked out. Chronic unresolved stressors like prolonged unemployment, abusive intimate relationships or poor physical health are important risk factors but, in reality, many episodes of clinical depression occur without any clear life event or chronic stressor.