There may be a tendency to slip into a mind-set that our new patients know all about depression also. This is rarely so. To make matters worse, many depressed patients are too polite, withdrawn or depressed to ask about what a Clinical Depression is. As many as 1 in every 5 people will have a serious episode some time in their life. Thoughts of death and suicidal thoughts are a common part of Clinical Depression.
Many people are worried that they are on their way to becoming crazy.
Only in very rare cases does the depressed person lose touch with reality. Clinical Depression is not the person's fault. There is a strong medical component to their symptoms. We know that certain brain chemicals are not at their normal level of functioning. We also know that certain parts of the brain are not using oxygen and sugar normally.