08-13-2014, 10:06 PM
There is a diagnostic manual for psychiatric diseases just like for physical diseases. There are degrees of depression and I have been diagnosed with mild to moderate depression. Severe depression very often ends in suicide and sadly, meds and/or intervention doesn't work. It is a chemical imbalance and tends to run in families. You can win the lottery, have many friends, beautiful children, great job. It just doesn't matter if you have clinical depression. Everyone has situational depression, we are sad when we suffer a loss, lose a job, someone we love dies and so forth. People who suffer from depression only wish that a positive attitude, mind over matter, finding God or whatever just doesn't work. This is reason I called someone a piece of shit on Facebook when he said Robin would be alive now if he had God in his life. Some of these Facebook fucks are something else; he said a lot of stupid shit. Anti-depressants work sometimes for mild to moderate depression, but not completely. There can be that underlying sadness in your soul which never goes away. Distractions help also, IMO, but if you suffer from severe depression, it is a challenge. Usually addictions are a symptom of the disease, but can be the opposite. Being a counselor helped me with my depression because I could relate to the kids on so many levels and these were high-risk young people and depression, personality disorders, etc. were prevalent. (16-21 youth). Did have one suicide who was on Christmas leave in Denver when it happened. He was very quiet and did not like to participate in group therapy; interestingly, he had taken his girlfriend home to meet his family..