Is Depression a Disease or Illness?

It is the question of many people today if depression is indeed a disease.  To our sadness, most people don’t even know the actual meaning of a disease.

So it won’t be surprising if the case of depression suddenly becomes a major issue. The other problem is that many scientists do not take an important part of their time to give a detailed analysis on this. Even popular health blogs are seen doing enough about it.

People get confused in what category to place depression. It doesn’t have the characteristics of ordinary disease and they find a difficulty to say that it is not a disease because they are still feeling unwell. So the issue remains controversial.

It is not a disease

Depression is not a disease. A disease is a disorder that produces certain symptoms. And it affects a given and a particular area of the brain or body.

The emotional and other traumas emanate from this abnormality. Emotional problems and abnormalities that does not emanate from a physical problem can’t be considered a disease.

The most common diseases are the ones caused by parasites. Bacterial and viral diseases are the most famous.

We have digested the name disease because of the various viral and bacterial diseases that we are encountering.

No matter how small the physical problem is, it has to be there in order to call the disorder a disease. But take note that a physical injury is not a disease. We are not talking about that.

For example a bacterium attacks you physically and not emotionally but that problem is not called a physical injury.

What we are actually calling a physical injury is when you fall on the ground and get injured for example.

It is a direct collateral damage that happens to your body without internal problems or the intervention of parasites.

It is not an illness

What is an illness? And how does it differ from a disease? Well, an illness is a general term that defines a disease in it. Something is called an illness when someone feels sick.

This sickness might be in body or a mental sickness. Above, we have discussed about injuries and we have seen that a physical injury is not a disease; however it is actually an illness.

Physical injuries don’t meet the requirements of a disease but meet the broader term, which is an illness.

So disease is an illness that has a certain well defined symptoms that some part of your body is not working properly. And it is subordinate to illness. Or diseases are illness but all illnesses are not disease. And when we come to depression, it is still not defined by this term.

Depression is not a well defined illness that has a particular cure and a certainly known cause. It rather can emanate from various causes and can also be healed by using various ways. Diseases and illnesses are different from this.

It is a disorder

What is a disorder? And how does it differ from the above two? Well a disorder is the mother of all. Both disease and illness are subordinates to disorder.

This means that they both are disorders. If you have a common cold, it is a disorder. It is not a normal thing. Anything that is beyond the normal human health status is

If you have mental illness, it is still a disorder. But this does not mean that disorder is disease and doesn’t also mean that disorder is illness.

It doesn’t work in the vice versa. Some disorders are disease, not all of them. But all diseases are disorders.

Depression is an emotional abnormality. It is a disorder of a human mind. I didn’t say a disorder of the human brain. I said a disorder of the human mind.

There is a difference between the two of them. A brain is the physical part and the mind is the emotional one. Thinking and controlling body actions are a part of the mind.

A brain has its own physical parts. And if any kind of disorder occurs to them, then it might either be called a disease or another kind of illness based on the problem. Cerebrum and medulla are among them.

They may get damaged physically by an accident and get disqualified from being called a disease. They may also suffer from a bacterial or viral attack and their problem will be called a disease.

Whereas a mind is the summation of the feelings, the emotions and the thinking and analysis emanating from the brain parts that we have discussed about above.

Depression is directly connected to it. Depression has nothing to do with disorders of the brain. This, however, does not mean a depression can’t occur from physical disorders.

Sometimes if we get another disease or an illness, it may drive us into depression because or mind might have been affected by the disease.

Depression basically occurs from an emotional trauma. It can be a trauma of any kind. Past experiences are also not to be neglected.

A person with a very bad background might fall into depression without any additional problem. Various problems that come on our way in life can cause a depression and different kinds of depressions have different kinds of backgrounds and different kinds of intensity.

The solution is also very different from that of a disease and an illness. It can only be dealt with by understanding the cause of it.

The psychologist or the physician can’t ask for symptoms and order a cure or any kind of physical treatment. You are rather treated emotionally to relax your mind and becoming able to rewind it to the status where it was before.

Some people are depressed without a reason. And this thing might get very dangerous to a level where many people commit suicide and it should be treated very fairly and with a high attention. It is not a disease doesn’t mean it isn’t deadly.