What is Depression?

Let's start with the basics. A surprising number of people don't know what depression exactly is (when I refer to "depression" I mean it in the clinical sense).

Depression is a medical illness, and most often needs professional treatment from a doctor and/or psychologist. Many people make the mistake of thinking that depression is just something that you can suddenly get rid of--they may say things like "just snap out of it", which most often make a depressed person feel even worse. By educating yourself about depression, you will come to realize that it is a disease that needs treatment, and not a personal weakness or laziness. This is an essential thing to realize, as it drastically changes the way you look at yourself. Instead of thinking that you're a failure and that things will never get better, you will realize that there is help available and that things can and will get better.

Even if you don't personally suffer from depression, it is likely you know someone who does. Educating yourself as much as possible can help you understand partly how they are feeling, and will help you be able to help them better.

For more information about what depression is, visit this page on my website: Mental Health Help - What is Depression?

Mental Health Help Introduction

Hi,

My name is Matt, and I started a mental health help site, with information about depression and anxiety. You can see it here: Mental Health Help.

This blog is a supplement to the site, and I will be updating it with news and information about depression and anxiety.

But to start out, I will just give you a quick guide to what's on the site:

• Depression News
• Depression Discussions
• Depression Links
• Depression BookStore
• And for information about depression, start at the What is Depression? page and click through the site from there--or, choose your topic from the sidebar.

I hope that gives you a good introduction to the site. I created this as a resource for people suffering from depression, and I suffer from depression myself so I know what it's like and want to help other people in the same situations.

Matt

P.S. If you have any ideas/tips for news/blog posts, or if you want to share your personal story, email me at matt@mental-health-help.com