Even though effective treatments are available, only one in three depressed people gets help. They are not the temporary blues or the passing sad moods that everyone experiences after a loss.
Depressive illnesses involve a set of painful symptoms that can last for months, sometimes years.
They change people. Sometimes symptoms are so disabling that they interfere with the ability to function. Some who suffer severe forms of depression are unable to eat or get out of bed. An estimated 15 percent of people hospitalized for depression eventually take their own lives. Others have ongoing, chronic symptoms.