Do you think that depression is an over-diagnosed disease?

Question

I've read competing arguments. Some argue that depression is a legitimate disease while others argue that depression is not real, aside from those people with measured chemical imbalances.

Answer 1

Completely over-diagnosed. People do often use it as an excuse these days. And many mental health professionals do not simply tell these folks the truth - that there are often changes in their own actions and thinking processes that will have them feeling better in no time. Instead, they sympathize with them and cash in at the patient's expense. And the sad truth is, that many people wouldn't want to "feel better" if they were told the truth - they get various "rewards" for being "depressed" - they effectively manipulate loved ones and friends by the whole "woe is me thing" - and a million other payoffs that come from happily wearing the label "depression".

I work for a psychiatrist - and after reviewing one of our patient's charts, I said, "Doesn't she realize that if she'd just __________________(you fill in the blank) her outlook and life would improve" And the MD I work for said, "Do me a favor, don't tell her that or she'll know she doesn't need to come back here. And people like her coming back her are your paycheck."

HOWEVER, I do not, in an way, want to negate the fact that there are, genuinely, people who suffer from very real depression caused by chemical imbalances. But, to directly answer your question - YES, I know for a fact that depression is often over-diagnosed.

Answer 2

I think it's a shame that depression is diagnosed as the disease, rather than what is usually is: a symptom of a problem. I still don't know how any doctor has been able to measure "chemical imbalances" prior to the diagnosis-- I don't know what tests they use to measure a chemical imbalance.

I believe that many cases of depression are caused by bad diets and endocrine imbalances, which CAN be measured with tests. Our endocrine system is so powerful, it controls nearly all of our bodily functions, yet so few doctors are even willing to acknowledge that. Though I suppose this relates to the pharmaceutical corporate donations to medical schools, which influences the curriculum. Face it: depression pills are a multi-BILLION dollar industry, so diagnosing people with depression is a very lucrative business.

I feel sorry for the people who get drugs after taking a silly on-line "assessment test" developed by the drug makers as a marketing tool. It seems these people go from drug to drug to drug without ever changing, and I believe this points back to the fact that depression is most likely a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself.

When the body is suffering from an undiagnosed problem, and yet drugs are given only to treat only the symptom, depression can develop into a chronic "disease".

Though, to be fair, many many people refuse to change their diet, exercise, or lifestyle- they want a pill to feel better, so both patient and the medical professional share the responsibility .

Answer 3

I think it's a legitimate disease but I think it is completely over-diagnosed. Some people have severe clinical depression and medication does help them get out of that, but half the US is on antidepressants anymore and that's ridiculous. Antidepressants have a lot of side effects that the doctors downplay and it's basically a cop-out on the part of the doctors/psychiatrists to just write a prescription to make it go away without helping their patient to figure out what's causing that depression and deal with it.

Chemical imbalances can be helped by natural means, too, and as someone who was diagnosed with a depression/anxiety disorder in college and put on medication after medication for 5 years when it was probably just the stress of college, I will NEVER EVER take another psychiatric medication in my lifetime, Paxil turned me into a drug-induced bipolar and I was about to kill myself when I forgot to take my meds two doses in a row and realized I felt normal again. Once I quit taking meds (cold turkey and against my doctor's advice) I was FINE, that poison messed me up much worse than they helped anything. I've been off antidepressants for 5 years now and have not had a single problem with that kind of depression since. I'm happily married, have a good career, am mentally/emotionally stable, and will never take any mood-altering medication ever ever again. Medication should absolutely be a last resort for extreme cases only.

Answer 4

In my opinion I believe that it is over diagnosed. Yes depression is a disease for some and that is when it should be diagnosed. BUT there are many times doctors will just diagnose someone so that they can sell some prescription, or just to get the patient out of there, I know that sounds sickening in a way, but many doctors do do this. I'm not at all saying that depression is not a disease, because it is, but just because you are depressed at one moment doesn't mean you have a clinical disease. Everyone has some time in their life that they become depressed, but they can snap out of it and be 'normal' again. There are, however, cases where it is a mental illness that needs to be treated. But society, now-a-days has definitely taken it to where if you are depressed once you are automatically mentally ill, and throw some pills at you as they take thousands of dollars from your wallet. Depression used to be taken very seriously, now it's more of a joking matter to a lot of people, even some doctors. Television gives us this perception that if we are depressed we need to automatically run to our doctors and ask about this pill or that pill.

I think we need to go back to where we take depression seriously and only diagnose it when it is actually an illness and not just an episode that will be easily overcome with time.

Answer 5

You've got a lot of really good answers here: mine is this.
It is an actually disease. It is not fun. No one wants to have it!
It can be something temporary: Job, relationship, financial, deaths etc. These can pass in time.
But: Depression in it's self Most Often be a chemical imbalance, a very factual, scientific, ... disease.
Yes, television over does it - to sell there stuff, even convincing people they MAYBE... And All These New Initials New Titles to disorders are REALLY ALL THE SAME JUST DIFFERENT TITLES..............

Answer 6

Depression is an under-diagnosed disease. Thousands of people lead miserable lives because they think they're just weak or moody or whatever and they don't get treated. I do think that too many people just pop a pill and stop there instead of figuring out what's really wrong and fixing it, either through therapy or through changing their situation. Nevertheless, anyone who says depression is not real has never been depressed or been around someone who suffers from depression. It's like a light is turned off inside. It's real and it's treatable and ignorant, judgmental people who blow it off ought to be ashamed. Would you say that a diabetic person is just being self-indulgent and doesn't really need insulin but just a little self-discipline and exercise?

Answer 7

Over the last five years I had begun to have increasingly withdraw into a downward spiral of depression..

But now with the method I can fully focus my energy and thoughts into a decisive line on how to make my life better constantly. And it works like magic! I'm beginning to attract people to me once again and things have just been looking up since then.

Helping you eliminate depression?

Answer 8

The emotion of "sadness" is one of the six basic emotions we are born with according to the psychology texts I have read. Depression is an extreme form of this emotion that lasts and interferes seriously with normal functioning. I think depression is epidemic in American society and the reason for it is the preponderance of negativity rampant in what is in the media and thus in society in general.

Humans have a basic need to have their existence matter (that is be important to someone) and this need starts very early and continues throughout life. That this is true for you, you can readily prove to yourself in that when someone says something to you the derogates you, you get an immediate sinking feeling. True you may have learned to counter this by an immediate aggressive rejoinder but the feeling is there. In it's extreme it is clinical depression.

The fact that it is now diagnosed as a disease is a measure of the lack of empathy doctors have for their patients and how much they have come to depend on the materialistic advertisements of pharmaceutical company's to treat them. Anti-depressants do work but they are not a cure for the disorder in my opinion. That takes a renewal of the thought processes of the individual having the disorder.

Answer 9

I think that depression is a symptom of the times we live in and, if anything, might be under diagnosed. Bipolar disease appears to be the diagnosis of the moment as every other person on here has it. It's just not THAT prevalent!

Answer 10

I have noticed an increasing number of people diagnosed with depression. I have worked in Mental Health for 28 years and the number is increasing. Whilst I am convinced that there will always be a steady flow of people requiring treatment fro depression, I think that the media and increased pressure, coupled with expectations that life will be good all of the time, make people run for help and the first hint of pain. Grief is a natural experience but it has become medicalised for many people.........