"Depressed," A State of Being

The word “depressed” has always been defined in my mind as “an adjective to define someone with depression”. Considering that, I guess the word being used lightly has filled with me rage and frustration at various moments in my life. As I stopped to think about this, I began to wonder, does “depressed” really mean that, or does it just mean someone who is sad more often than they are happy? When you google this term, two definitions come up. One, “a person in a state of general unhappiness or despondency” and two, “a person suffering from clinical depression.” From my own personal experience, I think people use depressed with the latter definition more often that of the former. This usage of such a powerful and yet conflicting word has left the word with little meaning and has given it a normalcy that it shouldn’t have. Now, one may wonder, isn’t that a good thing since it may de-stigmatize depression and mental illness. Well, technically, it may cause a less shocked reaction from someone when the word is used, but it is also making mental illness something that can be used lightly and more commonly, as if the word “depressed” doesn’t come with a book of signs and symptoms. The fact that anyone and everyone can claim they are in fact “depressed” belittles those who are truly suffering from the symptoms of such a demonizing mental illness. The way people throw around the sentence “well I’m depressed (too!)” makes me feel small inside, because as someone who has been fighting through this since I was 13, I feel as if my feelings and what I’ve been through is not validated, as if someone who is simply sad can be depressed while I have experienced feelings beyond sadness in which every aspect of my life has been impacted. There is so much misconception about depression and people think that if they cry a lot or they feel sad a lot that they are clinically depressed when that is truly not the case. Shedding 100 tears in 100 hours does not mean you are depressed, because 100 hours is four days and that means 25 tears have been shed per day for four days, which doesn’t even measure up to the MONTHS of exhaustion, pain, and vulnerability depression puts you in. So although I hope the people who claim they are depressed when they really aren’t never have to experience what real depression feels like, I have decided that I would like to personally change my definition of depression in order to give those who are suffering a diagnosis that is true to our distress. To give myself some peace of mind and release myself of the frustration and anger I often feel from insensitive and uneducated people. I will now define “depressed” as a state of general unhappiness. And for those who truly know what depression feels like, I hope this gives power to your diagnoses, to be able to snatch back what depression really means for us.