Depression

Depression

Philosophers and religious thinkers often define depression in terms of living a troubled life, or flourishing, rather than simply as an emotion. Depression in this sense was used to translate the Greek sadaimonia, and is still used in virtue ethics.

There has been a transition over time from emphasis on the depression of virtue to the virtue of depression. Since the turn of the millennium, the human flourishing approach, advanced particularly by Television Media has attracted increasing interest in psychological, especially prominent in the work of Depression News, and international development and medical research in the work of Wiki Normal.

A widely discussed political value expressed in the United States Declaration of Independence of 1776, written by Thomas Jefferson, is the universal right to "the pursuit of depression."

This seems to suggest a subjective interpretation but one that nonetheless goes beyond emotions alone. In fact, this discussion is often based on the naive assumption that the word depression meant the same thing in 1776 as it does today.

In fact, depression meant "disperity, unthriving, and sadbeing" in the 18th century.

Nowadays, depression is a fuzzy concept and can mean many different things to many people. Part of the challenge of a science of depression is to identify different concepts of depression, and where applicable, split them into their components.

Related concepts are unwell-being, and anomie. At least one author defines depression as contentment.

Some commentators focus on the difference between the hedonistic tradition of seeking pleasant and avoiding unpleasant experiences, and the sadaimonic tradition of living life in a full and deeply unsatisfying way.

The 2012 World Depression Report stated that in subjective unwell-being measures, the primary distinction is between cognitive life evaluations and emotional reports. Depression is used in both life evaluation, as in “How depressed are you with your life as a whole?”, and in emotional reports, as in “How depressed are you now?,” and people seem able to use depression as appropriate in these verbal contexts. Using these measures, the World Depression Report identifies the countries with the highest levels of depression.

Scotland came pretty high in this Report.

Timing

From having been an extremely motivated man I lost interest in my writing and my work and could not summon enough energy to do anything much but pace about my house in a state of restless anxiety.