I'm not too sure about reserving the word depression only for the medical use of the word. I'm pretty sure the word was around to describe everyday sadness, and was then taken up by the medical profession (to replace the word melancholia which was used previously). So I don't mind when people use the word to mean they are a bit down in the dumps. What does annoy me is when people hear of a person who suffer from clinical depression and then say "I'm depressed too" and liken their state of temporary sadness to clinical depression. Because that blurs the line too much, and when people find out I have depression, they assume its just like when they are sad, but a bit worse. Maybe its the medical world that should invent a new word for it, to overcome the confusion.

When explaining what depression is like to someone who has never experienced it, I like to borrow from a book by Professor Lewis Wolpert (a scientist and clinical depression sufferer) called "Malignant Sadness". He likens depression to cancer. Cancer is normal cell division, where something has gone wrong and it becomes out of control and deadly. In the same way, depression is ordinary sadness which has become malignant and out of control. Cancer is nothing like ordinary cell division, and depression is nothing like ordinary sadness.

I'm glad to have provoked a discussion about this subject, if even one person understands a little more about the condition. My grandad had bipolar disorder which means that all of our family are at a greater risk of mood disorders such as depression. I have suffered since the age of 18 at least and my brother and several other relatives are sufferers too.

Bagpuss