Today we’re continuing our ongoing series on “Who Am I” by focusing on a huge topic: depressed mood, including clinical depression. Today’s episode is the first of two parts and explores understanding depression, where it comes from, and how it differs from sadness.

This episode touches on many topics related to depression, including major manifestations of that state – which include self-harm. If this is sensitive territory for you, please be kind to yourself. Feel free to skip around or turn off the episode altogether.

I’d also like to offer a second caution. The series on “Who Am I” explores the ‘everyday’ side of what can be extremely serious psychological conditions. They’re not intended as a clinical tool for either personal or general diagnosis. If you think that you may have one of these conditions you should absolutely speak with a licensed professional.

We believe that there’s a lot of value in demystifying these psychological concepts, and in general, we’ve received a lot of positive feedback. It can be extremely helpful to have the information required to understand our individual tendencies or the tendencies of the people around us, and practical tools to manage those tendencies as best we can.

But casually “over-diagnosing” our friends and family can be extremely problematic, and even turn into a tool for us to avoid our own issues by placing the blame on others. 

All that said, we hope you enjoy the episode!

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Hanson’s new online program Neurodharma, follow this link! Use the code BEINGWELL for 10% off the purchase price.

Timestamps:

• 03:12: What is the difference between “feeling down” and clinical depression?
• 07:03: How can someone tell if they’re depressed?
• 20:29: What is the difference between depression and sadness?
• 27:30: Where does depression come from?
• 38:10: Recap of understanding depression and depressed mood.