definition of depression... ?
Q.what is the definition of depression? do you have to be depressed all the time to "suffer" from depression? what if you're really depressed at times and you cry about everything and then be happy afterwards for another reason? is that "depression" or just being moody?
A.there is no simple definition of depression. the diagnostic manual (DSM-IV) devotes many pages to the subject in general and to the recognized variations. that said - you don't have to suffer all the time to be officially depressed - happy/depressed mood cycles are characteristic of manic (bipolar) depression - overreacting to events may be related to depression. if you are concerned, there is a short test to *indicate* your level of mood disturbance, called the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). A copy of this is in the Burns book "Feeling Good, the New Mood Therapy". The book has other valuable information about the process of depression. Well I do not think any one post are great posts but that a thread of posts maybe great. Because in order to be "great" means further and future exploration and research into the topic. And the post in reference as well as earlier posts ask of historians to go back to the Versailles Treaty of post WW1 and see how that treaty alone caused Germany to go into a Depression. And then, to hypothetically impose a Versailles-like-treaty upon the USA of year 2003 in order to force plunge the USA into a Depression. What was in the 1919 Versailles Treaty that plunged Germany into a Depression? And what sort of identical stipulations on the USA of 2003 would force plunge the USA into a Depression in a 2003-Versailles-Treaty. It is obvious to all, that we can force plunge the USA into a Depression by building a Versailles-like-Treaty. So, if we can fabricate a Depression on the spot, or at will, then we can also foresee depressions coming in the future, ie, predict future depressions because they are just varying models of the 1919 Versailles Treaty that created the 1930 Great Depression.
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