What is major depressive disorder?
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Psychologist here! Let me see if I can explain it the way I sort of wrapped my head around it in grad school.
So peoples moods go up and down, think of it like a wave; sometimes it’s up and you’re feeling good, sometimes it’s down and you’re not feeling good. For most people this is a pretty regular thing, you have good days when the wave is up, and bad days when the wave is down. Everyone gets a little depressed and a little down sometimes, especially in relation to stuff that happens in our lives.
When you have Major Depressive Disorder, the wave goes WAY down, way lower than it should, and it stays there for a bit before coming back up. When it’s down, you just can’t do anything. It’s like your body loses the will to act. This is what we call a “Depressive Episode.” Now a single episode isn’t a big deal, especially if something in your life made it happen; losing a love one, facing death, yeah these things suck. But with this disorder, that deep wave keeps happening, which really sucks and makes it hard to function. This repeated, super deep dips of the wave is what we call Major Depressive Disorder.
Now what’s cool is you can use this wave analogy for other mood disorders too. For example, what happens when the wave goes way up? You have way too much energy, act impulsively, can’t control yourself, and so on. This is what we call a “Manic Episode.”
Ever heard of Bipolar disorder? That’s what your wave is going *Crazy*! high waves and low dips. This is really disruptive to peoples lives and why we often medicate to manage it!
So people with Major Depressive Disorder aren’t always depressed. Sometimes the wave is up! But sometimes the wave is way way down, and it’s hard to get out of bed or even function.
Hope that helps!
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