I'm not sure if everybody really understands, what is depression? Because we use the term
depression in our in our regular speech there's a colloquial way of using it I think sometimes
people fail to understand that that's not what we mean. We don't mean you know boy you know you know
my team lost I'm really depressed today. You know we're talking about a brain disorder. We're talking
about a condition where people even you know under the under circumstances where they can recognize
they have all the blessings and everything going well in their life just have no desire to live.
They can barely get out of bed in the worst kinds of situations. They their reward centers and their
brains are shut down so they can't really feel pleasure from things that they may
have once really enjoyed them and passionate about, everything seems to be flat and and more
so maybe even dark and painful to the point where imagine somebody you know overriding the the most
powerful instincts of survival to actually you know have an instinct for the opposite, wanting
to end their life. So that's that I hope that gives everyone watching a sense that that this is really
a disease, a powerful disease. This is not you know you know somebody who just doesn't understand you
know how to be grateful for something, this is. Our moods change right and you mentioned if your team
loses I'm depressed. There are times when we're very sad and we feel bad and that's not what we're
talking about with depression. And and when you go along that spectrum what what's changing? I mean
you know that the someone you knew passed away and you're sad, or so you get some bad news and
so you cry. But this is a the spectrum goes along there. Huh what's going on that changes someone
from the the typical swings that we get or even the ones that are pretty bad when something bad
happens to depression? Right you know our nervous system it you know it was meant for us to kind of
you know deal with the vagaries of everyday life that sometimes we were down and we're up but you
know nervous system kind of keeps us regulated. We keep going we we're generally resilient and bounce
back and we lose we lose you know people that we love very much and go through a period where we're
really not functional and we're grieving but but the nervous system bounces back. With depression
you know there's something dysfunctional and it doesn't bounce back, and people's nervous system
would really shut down. You know the normal things that that that the nervous systems are
specifically the brain I had mentioned before. You know, we have centers in our brain that allow us to
feel joy and pleasure. They get activated when when we're doing things that that make us happy and and
in depression one of the things that happens, those just don't get activated. So things that you know
are so powerful, things like food and sex you know are no longer of any interest to peoples.
Those are those are actually two of the criteria for depression is you know a decreased appetite
and a decreased interest in pleasurable things like sex. You know things were you know being being
with your children or grandchildren which which for most people is a powerful biological, you know
pleasure. You know people in severe depression will just, you know - it just doesn't, I'm not
interested. In fact they try to avoid you know engaging other people because it's so it is
so so challenging to be with other people and put on a mask. It's just it's just exhausting for them.
I see many people who you know aside from coming to see me and doing maybe the minimum they
need to do spend all day in bed. I had one patient I always remember who was a very successful and
very dynamic and beloved, a high school teacher so so so dynamic and popular that the
school had to have held a lottery for kids to go into his class, Wow. He developed a depression
and when he and I saw him three years into his depression where he almost was not able to take
care of his own personal hygiene and stayed in bed and he said to me - the greatest accomplishment
that I think I've ever done in my life to this point was just being able to stay alive the last
three years, because every day he deals with the thoughts of just ending this misery. So you know
this is David this is how profoundly pathological this state is. You know it's not it's not easy for
for average person who doesn't have the disease or or live with somebody to recognize it because
it's not like a broken arm or a diseased heart which we can wrap our intellectual minds around.
This is this is this is this is very alien for people unless they've been through it.