I have individuals coming into my office on a weekly basis with a primary complaint of being “depressed”. The important next step clinically is to assess that person for depression. Clinical depression can be resistant and unrelenting and requires a thorough and appropriate assessment to arrive at a mood disorder diagnosis. Unfortunately, complaints of this type are not always thoroughly explored or properly assessed, simply medicated. The overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of depression are of epidemic proportion.
It has become a commonplace for individuals to diagnose themselves, friends and family members. What I find in often cases is that word-depression-that people label themselves with is thrown around quite loosely and greatly misunderstood. By the time people come into my office, they have been experiencing “those feelings” for a considerable length of time and have not been able to “fix” it themselves. Although backgrounds are different, the feelings are similar. For example: People who come in as they say “depressed” because they’re single and want to be married; people who are “depressed” because they are married and don’t want the spouse they have; people who are unemployed and don’t want to be; people who hate their jobs and want to quit; people who don’t have enough money and people who have too much money ( yes this is possible); people who don’t have children and people who do have children but don’t want the ones they have. People too young, too old, too fat, too thin, etc, etc. The similarity here is the circumstances. If we base our happiness on the external circumstances of our lives, we will certainly be disappointed, dissatisfied at times. That disappointment if sustained could reach clinical significance. It is important to remember that the circumstances of one’s life are always subject to change… and usually, do.
We live in a culture of dissatisfaction–never enough–always wanting more. Bigger houses, cars, name brand this/ name brand that, latest electronic gadget, 80-inch flat screen TV’s ( Really ?? Who needs an 80-inch tv!!). Always seeking that next thing to make us happy. With such an external focus viewed from a myopic perspective on the superficiality of crass materialism, it is no wonder that depression has reached epidemic proportions in the US. With this misperception, Happiness becomes nothing more than an elusive illusion!! Like the butterfly that flits from flower to flower, we flit from one external distraction to another.
