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.

When the economic theories of the Classical Economist were not sufficient to put an end to the Great Depression of the 1930s, government leaders began to look for other ideas to help end the problem and came across Keynesian economics.

What can be done to avoid a depression in the first place?

Apple, learn to read. She was referring to an economic depression, not a mental one. Yeesh. Trying to come off as so smart but end up discussing the wrong thing.

I really do not think there is much we can do to avoid a depression to be quite frank. We can as a society be less greedy and try to cut back but that does not always work. With over 300 million Americans alone it takes one hell of a lot to convince that many people to conserve and consume less, to buy less unnecessary items. We are all guilty of buying things we do not need.

Will we ever hit a depression similar to that of the 1930s? Highly unlikely. Too many policies and other safeguards in place to prevent it. We are in a mild recession but I think this is all political. I feel it will change once a new president is elected. That's how this game works.

This is my second time being depressed. The first time it somehow went away after going back to school.
Depression seems to only happen when I spend an extended amount of time with family and then I leave them.
I don't really want to go to my parents about this, so what can I do to cure it?

Your description indicate what is called "Situational Depression" and is a very common form of depression but not the kind that requires professional help. That is, as long as it doesn't last for weeks on end. There is no "cure" only ways to lesson the impact and perhaps the duration. Hang with positive people. Do things you like to do even if you don't feel like it. Get plenty of sleep, and try to stay busy so you don't dwell on it too much. You will be okay.

Are there families who are still in debt because of the great depression?
Were any products introduced/gotten rid of because of the great depression?
What about governments of different countries, are any of the governments that changed because of the great depression, still what they changed to?

Thanks :]

depression glass

I am on anti-depressants to help alleviate the depression, but it keeps getting worse. I finally succeeded in quitting smoking, but I feel worse now than I did for the eleven years that I smoked. I've been exercising and eating right to. I just don't know what else to do.

A cigarette usually helps.