This one is less life shattering than major depression but it makes anyone who has it miserable. It is a constant depression which varies from being mild to moderate. It's a sadness that stays with you.

It lasts over 2 years. Most people can continue to work, go on with activities, and manage to have relationships. But just under the surface is that negative, pessimistic feeling. You never really feel happy or content. Also, if a large stress enters your life, you can go into a Major Depression. Depression is a strong feeling of sadness usually lasting for six to nine months. When the depressive symptoms go away for a while only to return again, it is called chronic depression. Everyone experiences sadness at one time or another. These feelings tend to lessen with time. Chronic depression is long- lasting and interferes with daily activities, but not as severely as a Major Depression. You can keep going on but you wonder why you should.

Symptoms: -Sad mood

-No interest in normal activities

-Tiredness

-Loss of enthusiasm

-Restlessness

-Keeping to self

-Irritability

-Distracted easily

-Difficulty making decisions

-Difficulty dealing with change

-Avoiding social contacts

-Many physical complaints with no basis

-Being slowed up and sluggish

-Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much

Remember, chronic depression is like a low grade fever. It hangs around and makes you feel out of sorts, hurting, and not sure what to do about it. You just know you can't go full steam ahead and don't want to anyway. I have known people with chronic depression who never are able to experience true happiness or joy in life. This is because they spend most of their time just trying to survive and meet basic needs. They do not have the energy for much else.

Meet Doug who suffers from chronic depression:

Doug is 45 and will tell you if you are interested that he has never felt happy. He says that there have been ups and downs for him but he just doesn't get feel that his life has amounted to much. He has been married and divorced twice. The women he was married to told him that he was distant and had a hard time with closeness. His last wife told him he needed therapy because she knew he didn't like himself very much. Doug feels like he is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and just cannot lighten it up. He goes out five nights a week, stopping off at a bar, hoping to hook up with someone. He knows he drinks too much but it's the only thing that seems to pick him up at all. He hasn't saved for the future and thinks he hasn't accomplished much. He lives in an apartment and thinks by now he should be more stable and have roots. His mother is elderly and he has a hard time thinking that when she is gone he won't have anyone who really cares for him. He thinks time has passed him by and it's too late for him to make any big lifestyle changes. He hopes that maybe he will just have a heart attack like his dad and have it over once and for all.

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