**PSYCHWORDS (1/??)**

I'm gonna create a little series on psychiatric/psychological language because the general public uses words that often get borrowed from psychological words, but then unfortunately distorts their meaning, leading to some confusion.

/1

Today, I'm going to focus on the word "depressed." It's very common for someone to say they are depressed in a common sense ("I'm so depressed the Vancouver Canucks didn't win") to mean "sad," or "down."

(note: the Vancouver Canucks never win the Cup, please be realistic)

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Of course, when used in this way the context is clear - the person is sad. It can be used to describe a funk, a temporary sadness, or even an actual mood state ("I've been depressed ever since Julie left.") or ("The ending to Green Mile makes me so depressed")

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Professionals, however, call the state of mood a "-thymia" or "-phoria." In the case of "low mood, sadness, negative mood state," we call it:

DYSphoria or DYSthymia
"diss-FOR-eeya" / "diss-THY-meea"

What can I say? We psych types love Greek!

/4

So while I might ask a patient what makes them feel sad or depressed when they bring the mood up, when communicating with other professionals I use their terminology on quotes, but "they were dysphoric for 5 days" to another professional.

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Why the distinction? Because mood states are simply moments in time, and they can and regularly occur in the context of normal human events. I was really dysphoric when my mother recently passed, or when COVID-19 I watched ravaged across the world.

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I can even be dysphoric in a moment - like when I get a bit of bad news or someone is rude to me online (never!) and makes me feel lower.

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But to professionals (I thought, though this week has made me question this), "depression" has a specific meaning. It is not simple sadness, or another emotion like love or joy or anger.

"Depression" is a significantly *impairing* amount of a *number of symptoms*.

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Typically, the main symptoms of depression are an episode of

DYSPHORIA (as we discussed) OR Anhedonia (lack of finding pleasure in things)

That's right! You don't even need to be sad to have a clinical depression. Not having expected joy in things as important.
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There are cognitive symptoms of a depression (increased guilt, challenges thinking clearly, feeling hopeless or suicidal) and physical symptoms of a depression (slow movements, fatigue, increased pain, changes to appetite).

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We do NOT see "sadness" as a reason for treatment (either psychologists or psychiatrists), though of course we care about it and can help people with sad feelings through conversations and context.

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We advocate for treatment (medications work for many, therapy works for many, both can be helpful, and there are lots of approaches when mild/moderate) when the symptoms of depression are LONG ENOUGH and SEVERE ENOUGH to cause significant impairments in how one functions.

/fin