Mind

If, as some believe, depression is a state of mind, what is the difference between being depressed and thinking that one is depressed? And would the effect be the same regardless of the cause?

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To say that a condition is a "state of mind" is not to say that there is no objective fact as to whether someone is in that state of mind, so that thinking it so makes it so.

So someone could easily come to believe that she's depressed without actually being depressed. Suppose that an otherwise reliable magazine publishes a quiz for the self-diagnosis of depression, but the quiz, unbeknownst to the editors, was written as a hoax. As part of the hoax, the quiz carries an introduction that "informs" readers that depression often be "hidden" beneath superficial signs of happiness, even elation. An unsuspecting reader, who is not in fact depressed, takes the quiz and scores "very depressed." The reader might well come to believe that he is depressed, even though he is not.

Now while the hoax victim might, like a genuinely depressed person, might seek psychiatric help, there is no reason to think that the hoax victim would experience any of the actual symptoms of depression, like feelings of hopelessness, depressed affect, sleep and appetite disturbances, etc., while the genuinely depressed person would.

Perhaps what you meant to ask was whether there was any difference between feeling depressed, and being depressed. Since feeling depressed is one of the most significant symptoms of depression, it is less likely that one would feel depressed if one were not. Still, even here, we can mark a difference, because there are other criteria for depression than depressed feelings.

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