Should we use the word 'depressed' to describe anything other than the illness?

My thoughts (as a depression sufferer):

We shouldn't say 'depressed' unless we mean the illness, so that we don't 'water it down'. Just like how we shouldn't say 'oh, I'm so bipolar' if we're prone to the occasional normal mood swing.
However, I do describe things as 'depressing' when it couldn't possibly mean the illness. For example, conversations or films which aren't necessarily sad, but are so heavy they suck all the energy and life out of you. So basically it's kind of a stronger word than sad for me...depressing. I use it to describe things and not emotions, if that makes sense.

Do you agree? What are your thoughts?

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Reply 1

Saoirse:3

Original post by tylerdaniel

That makes sense, and there's also other valid uses when describing non-human entities e.g. "The depressed economy". However, describing people feeling sad as "depressed" doesn't seem tremendously helpful to those suffering from depression and it's something I try to avoid doing :smile:

Reply 2

Dez

Depression means too many other things already. It can mean low pressure, it can mean an economic downturn, it can mean so many things other than clinical depression it's silly. But that's the English language for you. It's very tricky to mandate a change to the way we communicate, there is no word police to enforce it. Possibly you could approach this the other way, i.e. rename the illness, but quite how that would work I've no idea.

Reply 3

jawsontheflooor

i disagree, there are two definitions of 'depressed'
1) a state of being unhappy/ feeling despondent
2) suffering from clinical depression

Reply 4

username1221160

I disagree. When you use depressed to refer to an illness, it is short hand for major depressive disorder (or clinical depression or unipolar depression or whatever they are calling it these days). I believe or hope that most people can distinguish between the illness and the everyday sensation.

A comparable example, although less common, would be conflating anorexia and anorexia nervosa. They aren't the same thing.

Reply 5

Zargabaath

Original post by tylerdaniel

I think the concept of "watering it down" is extremely pathetic actually. Like seriously, grow tf up.

Reply 6

tylerdaniel

Original post by Zargabaath

I think the concept of "watering it down" is extremely pathetic actually. Like seriously, grow tf up.

Personally I think it contributes to the idea that 'depression' = sad, leading to those idiots who just say 'Oh, get over it, everyone gets depressed from time to time!' It's like when someone describes a skinny person as 'anorexic' - it just makes the illness seem like nothing.

Reply 7

username457532

Obviously there's certain times 'depression' is used to describe things that are not to do with emotions (e.g. economic depressions; things that are dented) but when someone describes themselves as 'depressed' they should only be talking about having depression. When people used 'depressed' to mean 'slightly sad' they trivialise the severe illness I've been suffering with for years.

Reply 8

Pathway

Well, technically, in the realm of emotion science, sadness and depression are two different things. Sadness is an emotion which means it's generally quite short-lived and is a response to a situation. However, depression is a mood (and generally a quite debilitating one, hence why it's a clinical disorder) - this means it's rather long-lived and not specifically related to any situation. So, yeah, it does trivialise the disorder when people use the word depression in place of sad. Same as people saying they're "so OCD" when they like to keep their shoes clean or something. But, as people have already said in the thread, depression can also mean different things outside of a person's affect (e.g. economy).

Reply 9

Zargabaath

Original post by tylerdaniel

No it doesn't. No one thinks anorexia isn't a serious condition because they've heard a skinny non-anorexic called skinny. Either you're being overly sensitive or you don't understand how people work.

Reply 10

Good bloke

This is not a sensible suggestion, I'm afraid. If you were going to do this then logically you would also have to stop using words such as pregnant, mad, broken, fractured, twisted, dislocated, cancer, torn, consumption, rash, worm, blind, dumb, deaf, idiot, moron and poison (to name but a few) in non-medical contexts lest those with related conditions were offended.

Reply 11

Macy1998

People know what a mental illness and what it means. Using the word "depressed" doesn't mean they're going to forget what depression actually is.

Reply 12

username457532

Original post by Macy1998

People know what a mental illness and what it means. Using the word "depressed" doesn't mean they're going to forget what depression actually is.

There's so much ignorance around mental illnesses. Lots of people believe they don't exist. That we're 'attention-seekers' or 'lazy'. A lot of other people think we're automatically dangerous.

Reply 13

z33

there are many definitions of the word depressed so... you can't just throw them all in the bin and use it just for the illness :/
the illness was named after a meaning of the word so it sn't exclusive to the illness :/

Reply 14

Asolare

I really do understand why to some people it is very annoying when people say the term "depressed" despite not actually being depressed, but I don't think we should go all PC and try to outright ban using the term like that: I think it's valid to distinguish depression as a term for the mental illness and depression as a term for being incredibly upset.

Reply 15

It's****ingWOODY

I don't see the issue personally. If an occurance leaves you "fed up" or "deflated" then you can be described as feeling depressed. However, you can be clinically depressed which is chronic and often seemingly without reason. It's like, you can have temporary anxiety when something is making you anxious, and similar to what I wrote previously you can have an anxiety disorder which, again, is chronic and often misplaced.

As an anxiety sufferer I wouldn't be offended and feel as though my condition is being trivialised if someone said something like "This waiting around for my results is giving me anxiety!" and having said the above I wouldn't class someone saying they feel depressed as them trivialising depression as an illness.

Reply 16

Texas.

Original post by tylerdaniel

Literally lol'd at this. Some of you PC police have too much free time.

Reply 17

tylerdaniel

Original post by Zargabaath

I do understand how people work. It becomes particularly apparent when I tell people I have depression and they roll their eyes, and I hear them whisper behind my back how I need to 'get over it' and how 'everyone feels sad sometimes'. You have no idea how **** it feels to have your illness invalidated like that, and personally I think that people throwing around words like depressed contributes to it. So yes, I am being sensitive about it, but I don't see why that's a bad thing.

Reply 18

tylerdaniel

Original post by WoodyMKC

That's fair enough. Thanks for explaining your point politely :smile:

Reply 19

tylerdaniel

Original post by Texas.

Literally lol'd at this. Some of you PC police have too much free time.

The 'PC Police' (a horrible term anyway) tend to shove their opinions down others' throats. Don't see what was wrong with my post which was just listing my thoughts and asking if others agreed or not.