Depression

Pebbles68

This may seem like a stupid question but can someone explain the difference between depression and clinical depression. My sister has suffered from depression for years and now has told she is clinically depressed. She's living in America on her own and is now worried what this means for her in the future.
Thanks

hotspur

The difference is just about who uses the term. Clinical depression is depression which has been diagnosed by a health professional based on established clinical criteria. So a plumber might say you're depressed but a mental health professional will diagnose you as clinically depressed according to criteria based on, say, the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders of the American Psychiatric Association.

It's like casually calling someone obese, but to be clinically obese you must meet certain established criteria.

There are several categories of depression diagnosis within the DSM, have a read of this:
http://www.allaboutdepression.com/dia_01.html