Posted by Elizabeth on November 9, 2001, at 12:55:45
In reply to Re: Atypical Depression Actually Very Typical » noa, posted by SLS on November 9, 2001, at 9:50:03
Scott --
I think that what you're describing would be considered mood-reactive depression. Mood reactivity means that your *mood* improves for a brief time (seconds, minutes, hours) -- not necessarily that the depression resolves completely. Remember that depressed mood is only one symptom of clinical depression.
From personal experience: I have non-mood-reactive depression and I don't *ever* tell jokes, laugh, etc. during a major depressive episode. I rarely even smile, and when I do it's pretty obvious to observers that it's forced. (I'm not very good at faking it.) Maybe someone here knows more about this than we do and can answer this question?
> Since I can't know what someone else experiences when they say that their mood is reactive to positive experiences, I could only assume that they meant that they experienced an improvement of their depression in the same way that I do when I respond momentarily to drug treatment.
What do you mean by that? ("momentarily?")
BTW...do your jokes get stupider when you're depressed? :-)
-elizabeth
poster:Elizabeth
thread:83164
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011104/msgs/83671.html