Clinical depression is a physical disorder that should carry no more stigma than diabetes or high blood pressure.

It's a disorder in areas of the brain that generate thoughts and feelings. When something goes wrong in these brain areas, it is inescapably reflected in a person's thoughts and feelings. Manic depression is characterized by mood swings — between feeling extremely low (depressed) to extremely high (euphoric, energetic).

Individuals with depression may feel helpless, worthless, hopeless. They may feel like giving up. It's important to realize that these abnormal feelings are an illusion that is part of the depression. It is as if your brain is tricking you, but you may not realize this or be able to stop it. If your brain were working normally, you wouldn't be having these morose feelings, and they will fade with proper treatment.

Depression also can produce symptoms other than those associated with mood, including impaired thinking or memory, inability to concentrate, disturbed sleep patterns, fatigue, change in weight or appetite, and other bodily symptoms such as headaches or other pains, digestive problems, and sexual dysfunction.

If you suffer from depression, all your thoughts and feelings sift through that gray cloud and come out flawed on the other end. So until treatment lifts the cloud, don't expect too much of yourself. Don't try to make important decisions. Don't keep putting off seeking help, thinking that soon you will “snap out” of your condition; this rarely happens without treatment. With proper treatment, the negative thinking will disappear as the depression lifts.

The most important thing that friends or family of depressed persons can do is help them get appropriate treatment. Offer your support rather than suggestions they may be lazy or faking it or could “snap out of it” if they would just try.

As with any other medical disorder, it takes more than an act of will to get well. It takes getting the appropriate therapy. Numerous medications are now available to treat depression. They work gradually and exert their therapeutic effects within a few weeks.

It could be a matter of life or death: Suicide occurs in about 15 percent of untreated serious depressions.

If you find yourself marooned on the bleak tundra of clinical depression, don't feel ashamed. The sooner you get treatment, the better.

Contact Richard Harkness by e-mail rharkn@aol.com.

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