Since antiquity - in the tortured lament of Job, in the choruses of Sophocles and Aeschylus - chroniclers of the human spirit have been wrestling with a volcabulary that might give proper expression to the desolation of melancholia. Through the course of literature and art the theme of depression has run like a durable thread of woe.

Taken from: DARKNESS VISIBLE a Memoir of Madness - by WILLIAM STYRON

In clinical depression, such feelings are out of proportion to any external causes. There are things in everyone's life that are possible causes of sadness, but people who are not depressed manage to cope with these things without becoming incapacitated.

As one might expect, depression can present itself as feeling sad or 'having the blues'. However, sadness may not always be the dominant feeling of a depressed person. Depression can also be experienced as a numb or empty feeling, or perhaps no awareness of feeling at all. Depressed people may experience a noticable loss in their ability to feel pleasure about anything. Depression, as viewed by psychiatrists, is an illness in which a person experiences a marked change in their mood and in the way they view themselves and the world. Depression as a significant depressive disorder ranges from short in duration and mild to long term and very severe, even life threatening.

Depressive disorders come in different forms, just as do other illnesses such as heart disease. The three most prevalent forms are major depression, manic depression, and dysthymia.

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