Is a mood an excuse used to avoid personal interactions? Or maybe it’s an attempt to get sympathy and attention? Or is it an actual disease?
Actually, it can be all of those things. Clinical depression is a major depressive disorder affecting about 7-18% of the population at some in their lives. But for most people, when they say they’re depressed, they’re referring to the depressed mood. We all go to that place sometimes. This sort of “depression” rarely lasts long. It comes and goes and is usually brought on by a number of different things, for me it is stress.
Depression affects people in many different ways. Some people prefer to be alone. They cut themselves off from friends and family in an attempt to work their way through the mood in their own time. Others throw themselves into social activities, preferring to ignore it until it goes away…this is usually me. Still others tend to dwell on it and try to draw the people around them into a similar state of depression, embracing the philosophy that “misery loves company”. People with this sort of behavior are people I usually try to avoid. Don’t bring me down. Sure, talk about your problems…I will listen, but don’t try to convince me that your problems are my problems and the world is caving in around me. That is toxic.
There are also the people that seem to live in a state of constant depression. For some of these people, the diagnosis is functional depression and these people need treatment. But for others, it’s more of a continual mood.
Some people just seem to enjoy being unhappy. Their negative outlook of themselves, those around them and life in general keep them in this continual depression. On occasion it is an attempt to get sympathy, but for some people, it’s just the way they are.
Girl on Fire
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