One Pharmacist’s View

Can we ever understand what we mean by saying someone is depressed? Recordings in the Bible called depressed people demon possessed The “crazies” of those times were thought to be possessed by devils. Once, while I was a child my mom was talking in general terms about some relative or other who was thought to be sort of “nuts.” “Someone spoke up, “I think she is just depressed.” Then I spoke up asking for clarification of terms. I mean, the world was struggling through the worse “depression” we ever knew of but what does it mean when an individual is depressed? Mom went back to her ironing, and I figured that this level of medical inquisition might be a little much for a Centrahoma housewife and mom, Later on in my life, I asked a local doctor about a customer of ours who had shot herself. What caused her to do that, I asked. “She was depressed,” he answered. I was perplexed. “How?” I just didn’t understand the overuse of the word.