You know, I think it's something
that gets thrown around a lot because
people have the experience of being
sad for perhaps longer periods
of time than they that they would
really like or can easily tolerate.
And so it makes sense that one might
describe that experience as depression.
But the fact of the matter is,
if you can function,
you're not actually clinically depressed.
Part of the way that we define major
depressive disorder is an inability to
function in several areas of life, right?
So if you're functioning,
if you're going to work if you're doing
the things you need to do by and large,
you're just sad a lot,
then you're sad a lot,
but that is not actually clinical
depression and differentiating
those two is really important.
You talk
about how it's hard to function
in certain aspects of life.
What are some of those aspects
in life? So work of or vocational pursuits?
If you are having trouble getting
up and going to work in the
morning on a regular basis,
that's a big aspect of life.
Socially, if you don't really
want to ever see your friends or
canceling plans all the time, etc.
That's a major area of functionality.
Parenting for some of us can
be a major area functionality.
Those are a few of the things
that we think about when it's like
are you able to show up and just
kind of live your life?
Those are a few of the big
ones. Why is the term high functioning
depression so commonly used? You know, I
think, well, this is just my take on it,
but we live in a society.
That leads us to believe that
the only thing that we should be
feeling is is happy that we we chase
happiness all the time and we're
we're quite feeling phobic in America
we don't like unpleasant feelings.
We are told that if we are feeling upset,
scared, angry, sad,
anything that feels unpleasant to
feel that there's a pill for that.
There's a coping activity for that.
There's a hobby for that.
There's a new marriage for that.
We're just really feeling.
Go back and so I think we all have
this idea that if we're not happy,
the majority of the time we're
doing something wrong and that's
just simply not true.
Research is really,
really clear that over the lifespan all
of us feel loads of different things.
A lot of the time,
and that's actually what's normal.
But that's that's not how it
gets messaged at
all. So it sounds to me like it can be
really difficult to sort of land in that
Gray area of sadness or depression. We
all are going to feel sad.
At times, right? So we can't.
We can't avoid that if we never
felt sad or angry or scared,
whatever we would be dead.
Feelings are a part of the human experience
and sometimes unpleasant feelings are
intense or last longer than we would like.
But the really big important thing
to know there is that when we try
to push our feelings down,
that's kind of like trying
to get out of quicksand.
And if you're try,
if you're in quicksand and
you're trying to get out,
you sink deeper.
So when we try to not feel our feelings
when we try to get out of our feelings,
we wind up intensifying
the emotional experience.
So the best thing we can do is be really
kind to ourselves and others about.
You know this is life.
This is part of what it means to be human
is I'm going to experience sadness and I
should treat myself like I'm physically sick.
When I'm sad I should wrap
myself up in a blanket.
I should, you know,
have something that is
soothing that tastes good.
I should expect less of myself and hopefully.
Wake up and feel a little different
'cause I let myself actually feel it and
was just accepting of that experience.
Can problems arise from using that term.
High functioning depression or
essentially being diagnosed with
that. If someone says that they
are diagnosing you with high
functioning depression, run.
It's not a thing you can.
That's not a real diagnosis.
And it is problematic to
use to use this term,
because for those of us who
actually experienced a major
depressive episode or struggle
with recurrent major depression,
I'm one of those people.
Clinical depression is not something
that you can just decide to be over.
Going for a run or doing some yoga.
It doesn't cure clinical depression.
Treatment is what allows people
to move past clinical depression,
and so if all of us are running
around saying that we have high
functioning depression when
we're just experiencing sadness,
this is not only is it just inaccurate,
but it also can really minimize
the experience for somebody
who's suffering with real,
diagnosable clinical depression that
they should be able to just kind of.
Snap out of it when that's
just simply not how it works.
There's very real chemical
changes happening when someone is
experiencing clinical depression
that that you can't just get out of.
It requires treatment,
whereas sadness you can just be really
nice to yourself for a day or two.
Go to bed and likely feel
better in the morning, right?
But if that's not happening,
if every day you feel terrible and
it's getting harder and harder to
do the things that you need to do,
you might want to get some help.