Quote Originally Posted by sycld View Post
Like I said, "chemical and biological" depression vs. "normal" depression are really just the same thing.


As far as I'm aware, the only real difference is that one is precipitated by events that are expected to do it, goes away after a reasonable period of time, and isn't so severe that the person, oh say, considers violence against themselves.
Severity doesn't come into the difference. You can have very mild chemical depression, or incredibly severe psychological depression.

The difference is that you can't really manage chemical depression without medication. I mean there are coping mechanisms, and you can learn to live with it, but you can't do anything to stop spontaneous depressive periods. Psychological depression, as you say, is caused by stuff. I mean you can still wake up one day depressed, where you were fine the day before, but it'll be attached to stuff going on in your head -- your baggage, basically.

The difference to me is that I feel like a shmuck for having such a bird's nest of psychic issues and coming so undone over, essentially, a break-up. At least I can feel like, someday, the mess can all be mopped up, and I'll learn to porter my own baggage -- even if I don't know how that'll ever happen.