There is little agreement among authorities regarding the relationship of depression to the changes in mood experienced by normal individuals. The term, mood, or generally applied to a spectrum of feelings extending from elation and happiness at one extreme, to sadness and unhappiness at the other. The particular feelings encompassed by this term, consequently, are directly related to either happiness or sadness Subjective states, such as anxiety or anger, that do not fit into the happiness sadness categories are not generally included.
Some authors believe that all individuals have mood swings and that normal individuals may have “blue” hours or “blue” days. This belief has been supported by systematic studies of oscillations in mood in normal subjects.The episodes of low mood or of feeling blue experienced by normal individuals are similar in a number of ways to the clinical states of depression.
First, there is similarity between the descriptions of the subjective experience of normal low mood and of depression. The word used to describe normal low mood tend to be the same used by depressive to describe their feelings – blue, sad, unhappy, empty, low, lonely. It is possible, however, that this resemblance may be due to the depressed patient’s drawing on his familiar vocabulary to describe a pathological state for which he has no available words. Some patients, in fact state that their feelings during their depression are quite distinct from any feelings they have ever experienced when not in a clinical depression.
Second the behavior of the depressed patient resembles that of a person who is sad or unhappy, particularly in the mournful facial expression and the lowering of the voice.
Third, some of the vegetative and physical manifestations characteristics of depression are occasionally seen in individuals who are feelings sad but who would not be considered clinically depressed. A person who has fail an examination, lost a job, or even jilted, may not only feel discouraged and forlorn, but may experience anorexia, insomnia, and fatigability.
Finally many individuals experience blue states that seem to oscillate in a consistent or rhythmic fashion, independently or external stimuli, suggestive of the rhythmic variations in the intensity of depression.
Normal Moods and Depression
