Depression

I'm feeling blue

Major Depressive Disorder

This is Harold. He’s living with major depressive disorder.

Harold realizes that everyone has said “I feel depressed” at some point in their lives. But he wants you to know that clinical depression is more than just having an off day. 

He has summarized his experience for you below.

What it is:
A mental health disorder characterized by persistent sadness and loss of interest & passion in daily activites, making life a daily struggle.

Key Symptoms:

feelings of intense sadness
loss of pleasure
anxiety
trouble concentrating

Learn more about how depression feels

what depression feels like

Depression affects the mind and the body.
Hover over parts of Harold’s body to see what he’s experiencing.

stomach

I feel terribly naseous.
I can't eat.

head

I have a headache.
I also feel kinda dizzy.

mind

I can’t sleep. I feel sad and alone. Everything is difficult.

limbs

My arm muscles and joints ache.

head: I have a headache. I also feel kinda nauseous

stomach: I feel terribly naseous. I can't eat.

mind: I can’t sleep. I feel sad and alone. Everything is difficult.

limbs: My arm muscles and joints ache.

view all symptoms

Learn about what depression looks like in the brain

a look inside the depressed brain

Harold hates when people say depression is “all in his head” because he knows it has real, physical effects on the brain. Hover over Harold’s brain to see how depression has influenced it.

prefrontal cortex

Smaller than normal. Makes it harder for Harold to learn new things.

amygdala

More active than normal. Makes Harold more likely to feel sad or fearful.

hippocampus

Smaller than normal. Makes it harder for harold to remember things.

prefrontal cortex: Smaller than normal. Makes it harder for Harold to learn new things.

amygdala: More active than normal. Makes Harold more likely to feel sad or fearful.

hippocampus: Smaller than normal. Makes it harder for harold to remember things.

view all brain regions

Learn about depression in the real world

real people. real struggles with depression.

Depression isn’t just something in stories. It happens to real people. Click through the carousel below to see real accounts of struggles with depression.

15%
of the adult population has struggled with depression at some point in their lives.

37%
of adults struggling with depression in the US received no treatment last year .

70%
of adolscents with major depressive disorder have severe impairment.

“I didn’t want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that’s really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you’re so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.”

— Ned Vizzini, It’s Kind Of A Funny Story

“There is no point treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, ‘There now, hang on, you’ll get over it.’ Sadness is more or less like a head cold- with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.”

— Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees

“Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced. . . . It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad. Sad hurts but it’s a healthy feeling. It is a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different.”

— J.K. Rowling

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