Can I be Depressed?

Steve* found that he felt disconnected from his wife and two daughters. Sometimes he felt angry and would explode at whoever was near, but mostly he felt numb. He spent hours staring blankly at the television. But when he had energy he thrived on extreme sports for the adrenaline rush-anything to feel alive again.

Jill felt drained. In three short years she had gone from competent sales executive to stay-at-home mother of two. She loved John and the kids, but they seemed to need so much from her. She couldn’t stand to be touched anymore-by John or the kids. She felt empty, like she had nothing left to give.

Brandon was in the sixth-grade and was picked on every day. He felt like he was sitting on a boatload of anger, but there was nowhere to put it. Nothing seemed to help. He really did not want to die; he just wanted to stop feeling bad. Impulsively, he tried to hang himself, but his mother stopped him just in time.

Bill did not know what was wrong. He felt he had been going through the motions for more years than he cared to admit. He didn’t feel really bad, but he never felt very good. He never missed work, he coached his son’s baseball team, and he loved Marilyn. But he kept wondering if his energy would ever return or if he would ever have more motivation.