Is Depression A Mental Illness?

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I was told depression is a disease of the self. Poor me Poor me Pour me a drink. Something like that anyway, but of course it doesn't always lead to drinking but hopefully you get the point, but honestly i don't have any degrees it's just street psychology. The person often is always focusing on the self negatively it is the other side of pride to the extreme called the shadow, the other end of the scale is ego or, i'm so fantastic and your a bit of a spastic. But of course it's to the extreme and uncontrolable so it is called depression and treated with mind altering drugs to much, though such drugs help they usually don't do to much unless you put the person in an awake comatosed state, it's sad, but there is hope there are plenty of other ways to treat mental illness coming out now days, faith, hope and charity is the best i think, but art therapy, congnetive thinking and a whole host of other remedies culminated with the medication is becoming more widely available, excercise is good too.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye

[little2add]

I'm queen of off topic, but how in the world does this relate to the OP's question? So far your posts, while less than coherent, have at least attempted to remain on topic.

So lets give this some science:

Given the complex nature of mental illness science would say that dogs can suffer from depression, though how it manifests is typically through either mental breakdown a la Rage syndrome (often in Cocker Spaniels) or through great loss in a dog that has been sired for loyalty (Timmy and Lassie, that Japaneese dog Hikoto or something that slept on his deceed owners grave), or debilitating illness such as blindness or deafness (old dogs on the blindess, white dogs or cats on deafness). However, given that these are not chemical based, but situational, dogs cannot often be helped by psycotropic drugs. They can be given mild sedatives to calm them, however, and for many dogs (or lab rats, cats, gorillis etc, it helps)

If one feels their dog is depressed and the vet gives the all ok and there is no loss in the dog's life, it's probably in the eye of the beholder and time to get the person to a doctor as they may be seeing a dog's normal behavior as something that it's not. Eg. The dog sighs because it's been crated (punished) for jumping on guests (eg cannot seek pleasure) , not because it's "depressed" that it cannot see guests.

When my dog is sad I scratch her ears and gave her a little doggie treat,

[little2add]

Is Dog (K-9) Depression A Mental Illness?

[little2add]

Slow down there nellie. I didn't say I had a dog. Now you're getting wicked defensive and sounding rather ridiculous.

You mentioned your partner died. If you are suffering from depression, and it's been more than 6 months, then you should go get help. Not like Lucy from charlie brown 5cent psychologist help but real psychological help. If you're having trouble affording help there's always phone numbers that you can call. The Hope line primarily deals with suicide but can instantly get you connected with free, local help for other mental illness or things that can become mental illness if left untreated.

So you're saying that if a person loses a spouse or a close family member is depressed more than six months that there mentally ill or damaged.
That's a pretty bold statement.

No disrespect lady but your full of it!