Recent news of depression in two prominent Washington public figures is bringing the illness to the forefront.
Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan announced his withdrawal from the Maryland gubernatorial race Thursday, citing symptoms of clinical depression exacerbated by the stress of the campaign trail.
Friends of prominent publisher and former diplomat Philip Merrill have said his apparent suicide some two weeks ago could have been brought on by depression following heart surgery last year.
Clinical depression is not the same as one’s feelings of sadness and every day stress.
“What confuses people is that we use the same word for both,” said Hinda Dubin, M.D., director of psychotherapy education at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “Clinical depression is much deeper.”
Most people suffering from the illness express an early indicator of being either depressed or irritable. Other symptoms include sleep and appetite disturbances, an inability to feel pleasure, feelings of guilt, poor energy and poor concentration.
Sufferers of clinical depression must experience at least four of the symptoms for two weeks or longer.
The illness can greatly impact work habits, often because patients have sleep difficulties and cannot think productively at work.
“When you are clinically depressed, sometimes you can’t sleep at night, so you are tired all the time,” said Lourdes Griffin, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and director of the Washington Health Center Outpatient Behavioral Health Service. “It’s like looking at the world through blue-colored glasses.”
Work habits are not always affected, however. “They reliably get up and go to work everyday,” Dubin said, “and no one else might have guessed what’s going on internally.”
