The 'Understanding Depression' Episode Everyone Should Listen To
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
They can understand themselves better, be more self-compassionate, understand the world differently. I really think you cannot just... get better, but you can get like better, better.
Welcome to But Are You Happy? I'm Ashani Dante. Previously on this podcast, we've done a series of myth-busting episodes around ADHD, OCD, and BPD. Today, we're turning to depression. because there are still a lot of misconceptions about it. That it's something you can just snap out of, that it's simply extreme sadness, or that it reflects some kind of personal weakness. But depression is far more complex than that. Joining us today is Julie Chapman, a registered psychologist with over 15 years of experience in trauma-informed care and addiction and complex mental health, including depression. She's here to unpack what depression actually is, how it shows up beyond just sadness, the myths that still shape how we think about it, and what recovery can really look like in practice, not just in theory.
Here's our conversation. Hello, Julie. Welcome to But Are You Happy? I am actually really excited to talk about this topic, depression, which sounds a bit of an oxymoron in itself because there is a lot to it. But yes, I just firstly just want to say thank you for joining us. Oh, my pleasure.
I love talking about all things mental health. Even topics like depression, I think there's so much in it that's really interesting.
And so I hope people really like learning more about it today. Yes, yes, I know we will. And it's interesting too, because when I hear the word depression, right, it gets thrown around a lot casually in conversation. We can just be like with our girlfriends, oh, I'm depressed. But no, you're actually just sad. And it gets me thinking about what actually is depression? Oh,
it's something, it's funny. I agreed to do this. I was like, yeah, I'll talk about depression. And then I was like, what is depression?
How do clinicians distinguish normal sadness from a depressive episode?
I went, oh yeah, okay, let's go back to basics. What is it? It absolutely can be thrown around a lot. Sadness is a normal human emotion. It's actually pretty good for us. We need it as well. I think the difference for me, you know, between normal sadness and really entering a depressive episode is when it starts to spread, colonise and become this sort of self-perpetuating darkness in somebody's life. That's not a clinical definition of depression, but that's, I think, an easier way for people to understand it. Yeah. There are definitely diagnostic and statistic criteria out there that pretty much anyone can go out and Google themselves. They don't give a list of criteria, you know, loss of interest in your activities.
But it has weird things in there like you might sleep too much or not enough. You might put on lots of weight or lose lots of weight. So it's sometimes tricky. People are going through and thinking, do I meet this? Is this me? I think it's probably more useful to think of it in, you know, the first way I described it. It's when it really like settles in and it starts to then create more depression for you. So you become really negative in your thinking and then that negative thinking starts to really spiral.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, hmm.
Yeah, and it was really interesting when you said self-perpetuating darkness because, I mean, just those words itself says a lot. Like what does that actually look like then for someone who might be like, oh, am I depressed or am I just sad? Because it sounds like it's quite deep. Like is it kind of it's showing up in so many different areas of your life or it's impacting kind of like your quality of life?
I think the thing is that's really hard about thinking about what it might look like in someone's life is it's Because everybody experiences depression so differently, it's going to look so different depending on who is experiencing it, right?
Yeah.
So there are lots of things like you could look at low mood, losing interest in things, sleeping, fatigue, difficulty concentrating. But I'm not really sure if that always helps people to kind of think, oh, yeah, I'm depressed.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:27
2
How do clinicians distinguish normal sadness from a depressive episode?
2:27–12:17
3
What does depression look like beyond just feeling sad?
12:17–27:39
4
How can parts-based (Internal Family Systems) thinking explain a 'system collapse' into depression?
27:39–34:19
5
In what ways does depression affect the body as well as the mind?
34:19–38:06
6
What different types of depression should people know about (SAD, PMDD, dysthymia, postpartum)?
38:06–43:34
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from But Are You Happy?
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