Every human will most likely experience
depression in his or her life time. The main difference between depression and
clinical depression is the cause and length of time the
person is depressed. A
normal bout of depression might be brought on by the natural process of
grief in response to an outside problem or tradgedy. Some examples are the death of a friend or family member, a divorce, the loss of a child, being fired from one's job, unemployment, a severe physical
trauma, and pain (especially for an extended length of time). Depression is a normal, and actually healthy process to go through in reaction to an external trauma. Depression turns into clinical depression, or severe depression, in two different circumstances. The first happens after a person's experiences with depression caused by an outside situation (such as the ones listed above) extends for an unusual lenth of time. Doctors and Scientists theorize that grief causes the person's normal levels of seratonin (a hormone in the brain connected to feelings of content and happiness) to drop, and for some reason (possibly because of stress, or genetics) the person's body is unable to build up that level of saratonin again. Now the person has gone from grief into a clilnical depression. The second way of developing clinical depression is recognizabile because it is not in response to any external trauma such as the death of a loved on. Instead, the person slips gradually into a deep depression for no explanable reason. Usually people who become clinically depressed in this way have a personal
history or family history of depression or bi-polar disease. People with a personal or family history of alcholism are also at risk for developing clinical depression.
No matter the cause, once a person is experiencing ongoing sadness or an inability to enjoy life, the culprit is believed to be a low level of saratonin in the brain. Therefore, depression starting from a long bout of grief or stress or from genetic predisposition are both treated with the same medications (anti depressants).
More summaries about the Depression versus Clinical Depression