What is Depression and How Do I Know If I Have It?

Cindy J. Aaronson, PhD

Dr. Aaronson joined ADAA in 2004 and after serving on the membership and conference committees, was elected to the Board of Directors in 2013. She served as Board Secretary until 2016 and has been actively involved in ADAA in numerous ways including co-chairing the 2020/21 conference.

At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, she teaches medical students Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) through a Mount Sinai program at a clinic in East Harlem. The clinic treats uninsured, often undocumented, individuals in the area in need of care, receiving both medical and psychiatric treatment by volunteer medical students under the supervision of attending physicians. She also supervises resident psychiatrists and psychology interns on their clinical CBT cases.

Dr. Aaronson’s clinical interests include panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression. Her previous research involved developing new types of treatment interventions for PTSD, depression, and interventions to encourage initiation of and adherence to hepatitis C medication treatment. She was also involved in a study using an internet-based intervention for PTSD in police first-responders to 9/11.

During the pandemic, Dr. Aaronson assisted Mount Sinai in starting a mental health healthcare program conducted by social workers for the faculty and staff of Mount Sinai. Trained didactically, she supervised the clinicians whose work was focused on using CBT for anxiety and depression, as well as burn-out.

Member Affiliations:

Member and Secretary, Board of Directors, ADAA 2013-2016
Member, Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapy
Member, Academy of Cognitive Therapy
Member, NYC-CBT

May 8, 2017

What is Depression and How Do I Know If I Have It?

Reviewed October 2020

Everyone has bad days when things just aren’t going well and we just feel off. This can be in response to some bad news like getting a grade that is less than stellar or your friends are too busy to hang out. Sometimes when we find our bad day seems to last day after day, then that may mean something else is going on.

Depression is a term that covers a great deal of meanings and references. In economics, depression refers to a “sustained, long-term, downturn in economic activity in one or more economies.” In kinesiology, depression is “an anatomical term of motion that refers to downward movement, the opposite of elevation.” In weather, depression refers to “an area of low atmospheric pressure characterized by rain and unstable weather.” In terms of mood, depression refers to a sustained mood that is low, sad, down, blue. When the mood continues for two weeks or more and occurs for most of the day that may indicate an illness called major depression.

In addition to the persistent down or low mood, major depression also includes a change in interest or lack of pleasure in usually enjoyed activities where the individual just doesn’t feel like going out with friends, going to parties or even eating favorite foods (they just don’t taste as good anymore). Sleep is often altered or changed, like having trouble falling asleep, waking up one or more times in the night or awakening a few hours before normal and not being able to fall back to sleep. It can also include the opposite—sleeping more than usual. Frequently someone who is depressed also feels tired, exhausted or has no energy, stating that it’s hard just to get up at times and move. S/he may find his/her concentration is off, what used to be easy becomes difficult, like reading, following conversations or the plot of a movie.

When the mood is low it can color lots of perceptions, including feelings about ourselves, making us feels less than or even worthless. Sometimes depressed people find their thoughts focused on past mistakes or bad experiences that they usually don’t think about or haven’t thought about for a long time which may create lots of guilt and shame. It’s not too difficult to follow that thought path down to the point where the person thinks about dying, wishing s/he were dead or thinking about ending his/her life.

The good news is that this condition is temporary and very treatable. There several effective treatments for depression including cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), behavioral activation (BA), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and antidepressant medication. Find more information about these treatments on the ADAA website as well as how to find a clinician who can practice any of those therapies. Everyone has down periods, but if yours goes on and on, it may be time to get some help.