What is the best way to differentiate between depressive disorder or rational depression in one's own life? At the moment I am not sure whether my depression is due to a disorder or the way my life is. I am living with my parents, unemployed, friendless, so it would make sense for me to feel depressed I think.

[vital]

Originally Posted by Illegal Toilet

What is the best way to differentiate between depressive disorder or rational depression in one's own life? At the moment I am not sure whether my depression is due to a disorder or the way my life is. I am living with my parents, unemployed, friendless, so it would make sense for me to feel depressed I think.

What do you think depression is in your case?

[vonmoxie]

It's probably not ever entirely an either/or situation but some combination thereof. I think it makes sense to consider what it is, for instance I went through grief that due to a couple of bereavements that occurred a little too close for comfort, which then turned into a major depressive episode. At first I looked at it as being situational, and didn't realize when it became more than that.. but when I went for help and it was looked at as being purely pathological, that wasn't very helpful either. Better to be holistic, I think, in looking at it as the complex experience it very likely is.

I saw this chart in a book I was reading recently, and I don't know how scientific it is, but maybe it could be helpful in considering what's at play:



Maybe write down some of your specific feelings about it, and which you think those specifics are each attributable to? Might be a good way to map it, and to differentiate as you say.

[JohnCrow]

Originally Posted by Illegal Toilet

What is the best way to differentiate between depressive disorder or rational depression in one's own life? At the moment I am not sure whether my depression is due to a disorder or the way my life is. I am living with my parents, unemployed, friendless, so it would make sense for me to feel depressed I think.

One feeds on the other

Life events create an imbalance, depression robs you of your desire to be around people, which results in you being lonely, which depresses you, which makes you susceptible to mundane illnesses (colds) which makes you not want to go out, which leaves you going stir crazy, which creates anxiety, which causes your body to try and compensate for the anxiety

I think you get the idea

The only useful advice I can give you is this: Depression is not sadness

If something should make you sad, let it. This will clear it.
If you feel like things have reduced or no meaning, that is not sadness

[ManOfConstantSorrow]

Are you familiar with the concept of depressive realism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism)? It makes some sense to me.

I agree with those who said that it's not usually just one or the other. It may be more one than the other, but there are usually several factors involved.

It has also been my experience that the longer depression continues untreated, more and more of the areas in the diagram than von moxie shared become involved.

I am living with my parents, unemployed, friendless, so it would make sense for me to feel depressed I think.

True. But it may also be the case that you are living with your parents, unemployed, etc., because your depression makes it difficult for you to function.

I have a lot of undesirable things in my life as well. Chronic medical problems, unemployed/on disability, living way below the poverty line, no close relationships, very little contact with parents and siblings, not totally friendless but could use more friends and stronger friendships.

I think it can be helpful to look at the circumstances in your life that you don't like and to make a plan to change them or at least to think about if it's possible. I am only working on small things at the moment, like eating nutritiously, going for walks, and trying to connect with people a little more.

If you are suffering only from what you've called "rational depression", then if you start to make changes in your life to make it more the way you want, I think you'll see your mood start to improve.

Oh - I am never sure what to call the depression that still remains when I'm on antidepressant meds. It's different in nature from unmedicated depression. I suppose it's just a milder version of my depression.

I feel like I haven't answered your question at all. I suppose I just tend to try to find some meds that work fairly well, try to keep my life habits like diet, exercise, and sleep healthy, see where I am at that point then and evaluate what I'm capable of doing to improve my life.

[Onward2wards]

I agree that it's multidimensional ... things in that chart tend to feed off of one another. Learned helplessness is a big factor (I used to call it toxic discouragement before I ever read about learned helplessness).

[where_to_begin]

I think that you can be rationally pessimistic about the world and life in general, and then be depressed on top of that.