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.

And Connie:

Connie is 36 and has never been married. She has had several affairs and wonders why she always ends up with guys who treat her badly. She is a teacher and says that the only good thing she gets done is keeping the kids under control and says they don't seem to want to learn. She would like to do something else but needs the steady income and benefits. She has had to take a lot of time off work with her back problems and has been sent for every test imaginable. The doctor tells her that they can't find any physical reason for her pain. She keeps demanding that she needs pain medication because her back hurts and she has to be able to teach to support herself. She has a friend who seems to be in the same boat and they talk about how men seem to let them down. Connie is always trying a new diet, always talks about needing to lose 20 pounds, but she can't seem to stick to any plan. She calls herself a fat ass and gets very down. As she looks to the future she wonders if things are ever going to change, if she ever is going to be happy. Her doctor suggested she might want to see a counselor but her friend went for therapy and seems no better. So she just keeps on doing the same thing every day.

If you or someone you love is suffering from chronic depression, you have a hard row to hoe. There is no room for optimism in your brain and you just keep trying to put one foot in front of the other and try to cope the best you can. It's a bad life and one that you can change if you want to. The problem with chronic depression is that the person suffering from it and the people around him or her don't get too excited about how the person acts. You can slide by in our society without people taking much notice of whether you are happy or not. Only you can decide if you want to take action to change your life 100% for the better