Where does depression come from? Why is it classified as a disease?
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When a person experiences a problem with the expected function of some part of their body, we call that a disease. That includes the brain.
Depression refers to a condition where an issue with the brain causes a person to feel extreme sadness, helplessness, or rejection. In depression, the feeling is far more extreme than the sort of typical emotional responses people have as a result of social interactions. Depression is more intense, and doesn’t rely social interaction to cause it (though that can certainly make it worse). It can very much make it difficult for a person to function.
What causes depression is quite complex. It had originally been thought to be related to abnormalities in the function of certain chemicals in the brain, and that certainly does play a part, but current understanding is that is also partially the result of a combination of biological, genetic, environmental, and psychological factors.
Drugs that treat depression largely focus on altering the function of chemicals called neurotransmitters in the brain.
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