[DallasMike]

It's my opinion that depression can be a result of mixed up chemical reactions in the brain. This is where pharmaceuticals can truly help, not in the simple 'feelings' type of depression.

Thank you, SuziQ. I was expecting one of the first posts to say that he committed suicide because he didn't read the Bible enough, or some kind of malarkey (and I say that as a conservative, devout Christian). Too many people don't understand what clinical depression is.

[SuziQ]

Too many people don't understand what clinical depression is.

So true. Some folks believe that you should be able to 'get over it', or pray your way out of it. If it were just a 'bad feelings' kind of depression, that may work, but then folks feel worse if neither approach helps.

When it's your own body working against you, that's a whole 'nother can of worms. As my hubby jokes, it's 'better living through chemistry'. ;o)

[B-Chan]

Yep. People who don't have depression think it's a matter of feelings. Nothing could be futher from the truth, of course. It's more like being put into a sensory deprivation tank. It's suddenly realizing that "the world would be better off without me". It's believing that there is no hope and that everything you and everyone else do or have done is a pointless waste of time. It's knowing that you're really a bad person but also that you're too much of a coward to kill yourself and rid the world of one more fleck of evil.