This is mostly helpful, but also... incomplete... and, I think, incomplete in a way that could hurt people (and, generally, hurt people who have a hard time defending themselves because they are stigmatized).
You need to make it clear that situational depression isn't just grief or grieving (where I'm extending grief and grieving to include all loss, even, say , moving to a new house or losing a job).
To put it another way, situational depression can be caused by long standing environmental factors that are outside the control of person experiencing the emotion.
The most famous case of this is the large number of women in the 1950s who were unhappy in their role as wives and mothers; many of them believed they should be happy, and sought professional help in ridding themselves of this unwanted, irrational, and ineffective emotional reaction. They were usually diagnosed with depression, and given Valium (an addictive drug) to cure it.
Eventually Betty Friedman did a study (published as The Feminine Mystique) in which she revealed just how many of these women there were, and argued that their feelings were a "normal" reaction to their environmental situation. Thus did the feminist revolution of the 60's begin.
Unless you make it clear that situational depression can last over a long period of time, and occur in situations that other people would be perfectly happy in (many women are happy in the roles of wife and mother) you stigmatize, and shame, the people who experience this. That both hurts them, and makes it harder for them to defend themselves; and it means that people, like you, try to treat their problems as clinical depression and not situational depression, which usually makes it worse.
no subject
You need to make it clear that situational depression isn't just grief or grieving (where I'm extending grief and grieving to include all loss, even, say , moving to a new house or losing a job).
To put it another way, situational depression can be caused by long standing environmental factors that are outside the control of person experiencing the emotion.
The most famous case of this is the large number of women in the 1950s who were unhappy in their role as wives and mothers; many of them believed they should be happy, and sought professional help in ridding themselves of this unwanted, irrational, and ineffective emotional reaction. They were usually diagnosed with depression, and given Valium (an addictive drug) to cure it.
Eventually Betty Friedman did a study (published as The Feminine Mystique) in which she revealed just how many of these women there were, and argued that their feelings were a "normal" reaction to their environmental situation. Thus did the feminist revolution of the 60's begin.
Unless you make it clear that situational depression can last over a long period of time, and occur in situations that other people would be perfectly happy in (many women are happy in the roles of wife and mother) you stigmatize, and shame, the people who experience this. That both hurts them, and makes it harder for them to defend themselves; and it means that people, like you, try to treat their problems as clinical depression and not situational depression, which usually makes it worse.
Kiralee