This is not laziness or weakness of will.

Healthy people often call depression the usual blues that absolutely anyone feels from time to time. Everyone says “I’m depressed” from time to time.

Due to the confusion of concepts, most healthy people do not understand point-blank those who have a real illness. It seems to them that a person is simply weak and lazy, a ” negative “, a whiner.

But what is “real” depression, and how is it different from mere blues?

Let’s start with the fact that clinical depression is a serious disease that imposes restrictions on all areas of life and reduces its quality much more than diabetes or stomach ulcers.

Here is how David Burns, one of the most famous cognitive therapists, whose book Mood Therapy I recommend to everyone without exception, describes depression:

Depression is the worst form of suffering due to an all-consuming sense of shame, self-worthlessness, hopelessness and a decline in moral strength.
Depression can feel worse than end-stage cancer because most cancer patients feel loved, hopeful, and have good self-esteem. Many depressed patients have told me that they wished for death and prayed every night that they would be diagnosed with cancer and die with dignity without committing suicide . David Burns, ” Mood Therapy “

Well, “the worst form of suffering” – does it look like ordinary sadness and blues?

If a little more scientifically, here is a quote from Wikipedia:

Depression is a mental disorder characterized by low mood and a decrease or loss of the ability to experience pleasure.
Some of the following symptoms are usually also present: low self-esteem, inadequate guilt, pessimism, impaired concentration, fatigue or lack of energy, sleep and appetite disorders, suicidal tendencies. Severe forms of depression are characterized by the so-called “depressive triad”: decreased mood, mental retardation, and motor retardation.

In advanced forms, depression can go further – most people find it difficult to imagine how our mood is connected to higher mental functions, such as memory, and even physiology, such as immunity.