I was diagnosed by a doctor with moderately severe depression recently. I'm confused, is this the same as the others i've mentioned? If not, what are the differences?

Hi,

To cut to the chase, BIPOLAR (as you might already suspect) means “two poles” and is simply the new “in” word for Manic Depression where a person cycles between “very big highs” (mania) at one end of the ‘pole’ and “very low Lows” (depression) at the other end of the ‘pole, which is a far wider range than most other peoples – and it lasts for more than a couple of weeks.

Many famous and highly intelligent people have/had manic depression including Sir Winston Churchill, Stephen Fry, Carrie Fisher, Spike Milligan, Ben Stiller, DMX and many others. Managed properly, it can be lived with, and in fact because the “mania” (the highs) are so exhilarating, most manic depressives wouldn’t swap their manic depression for being normal. There are three treatments for Bipolar, and only one of them involves antidepressant drugs.

Normal Depression is a bit different.

I've been in fairly hefty senior management positions for around 4 decades and have had up to 500 staff under me at times. I’ve had to deal frequently with many people suffering Depression, so know a little about what you are going through. Depression is far more common than most people think because most people either don't recognise it or hide it. In fact, I think the stats show that up to one-in-five people suffer from Depression, all over the world. It's good that you're getting it out in the open and seeking advice. Just be careful of the myths and here-say, though. A lot of people don’t know what they’re talking about and just seem to make things up as they go along.

Nowadays, I produce videos, and last year made a 35-minute DVD presented by a top UK Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Darryl Britto, who is a personal friend of mine, and who wanted to squash all the myths about depression, because he felt that very few people thoroughly understood what it is all about. In the DVD he includes an explanation of the three main treatments available. It's purposely in simple layperson's language and aimed at 4 categories of people.
1) Those with Depression,
2) Those who think they may have Depression,
3) Friends and family of those with Depression, and
4) People training in the healthcare sector.

If interested, you can see a FREE PREVIEW on YouTube at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce1viJ7zqCU

I also have a Blog at http://business-sage.blogspot.com which has heaps and heaps of useful FREE ADVICE about enhancing your lot in life, which you might be interested in. (Some of it is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.)

Also I’ve include some web links below, many of which are professional bodies connected to Bipolar and Depression with stacks of free information.

I sincerely hope this information might help you, and that I haven’t given you too much text here – but I felt it important to lever you away from (sometimes) harmful here-say, gossip and myths. People suffering Depression are not alone, you know. Depression is treatable in the majority of cases and it's truly not as bad as people think it is. Armed with the FACTS of what Depression is all about, makes it ten times more easy to handle.

Good luck & Cheers
John E

actually would you consider it manic/depression or something else?

Yes

Many of the economic indicators such as GDP and inventories are worse today than in the 1930's when the Great Depression was at its zenith. Do you think we are really in another great depression and politicians are just lying to the American people?
Funny, I'm middle class in America and have 20 suits 1 cell phone and one flat screen tv. I guess clothing determines your class status, Ok just one pair of Prada men's shoes and they hurt my feet!

A depression occurs when a recession lasts for an extended period (the average recession lasts a year) and causes huge adverse affects to unemployment and GDP. Some define it as GDP declining 10% or more. On either level, we're not there yet.

When feeling tired and no mood to do anything, is it called depression? Or when thinking of a person too much, will it cause depression finally if things continue for a long time?

Depression is the agony of the soul, the dread of the mind and the failure of the heart. Depression is lack of will for life, a deeply felt sense of doom. If allowed to take over it will lead to spiritual death.

My friend keeps calling it a depression. I tried correcting her its a recession. Whats the difference? Isn't a depression worse?

The difference between the two terms is not very well understood for one simple reason: There is not a universally agreed upon definition.
The standard newspaper definition of a recession is a decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters.

Before the Great Depression of the 1930s any downturn in economic activity was referred to as a depression. The term recession was developed in this period to differentiate periods like the 1930s from smaller economic declines that occurred in 1910 and 1913. This leads to the simple definition of a depression as a "recession that lasts longer and has a larger decline in business activity."

So how can we tell the difference between a recession and a depression? A good rule of thumb for determining the difference between a recession and a depression is to look at the changes in GNP. A depression is any economic downturn where real GDP declines by more than 10 percent. A recession is an economic downturn that is less severe than that.

So you're right. A depression IS worse.

My birthday is in a couple of days. I always get depressed on my birthday. Anyone have any suggestions that will help me get over the depression?

Well, you could always do like I do. I don't have birthdays anymore, I have Piedays. Each time another you know what rolls around, the wife just makes me a pie. No celebration, no gifts, no cards, just a nice pie. What could be better than that?

I have dated a person who obviously suffered from depression. He appeared to be so charming, normal, outgoing. He has lots lots people like him and has absolutely no problems making friends.
Lately, I learned that he suffered from severe depression. He had several suicide attempts. It may sound very scary, but how, a normal person with no medical backgrounds be able to tell who is a nut job, who is normal? Especially when I want to have a relationship with that person.
Thank you in advice.

firstly may i point out that calling a depressed person a "nut job" is not a good term to use, especially as most people on this section here have mental health problems.

i would say that depressed people are sometimes hard to read, you cannot tell because often people keep their feelings locked up inside of them.
i guess they might act withdrawn, reject offers to go out places, and seem disinterested or vacant. depression sucks the life out of you and doing anything can seem impossible. they might seem tearful as this is another symptom.
many depressed people also self harm (don't get me wrong, that's not all, and not all self-harmers are depressed) so you might notice some scars on their arms or something.

i think generally you might not be able to tell, but those might be some telling signs.

I am doing an assignment on “To kill a mockingbird” and am stuck on the cultural context. Can someone please tell me how the great depression and civil rights movement caused racism and class issues? cheers!

During the great depression many whites were lowered down in the class system to where many blacks were during that time. Especially in the south and more rural areas. This causing them a lot of hostility towards one another. Whites hostility was caused by feeling inner anger towards blacks because they were now competing for the same jobs. Blacks hostility was now caused because the whites were now pushing them out of what was then considered “blacks jobs” and leaving them nothing. My grandfather was a tenant farmer in rural alabama and worked alongside blacks in the fields doing manual labor. He said that although they worked together, they didn’t really speak to one another any other time than when they were working.