No Stupid Questions

If it's a permanent, significantly unalterable biological imbalance of chemicals, I say disorder.

If it is a result of outside forces like a terrible job or a lack of opportunity or any outside circumstances, I say symptom.

Depends on the context, certainly.

This is a good question, because now I'm wondering if other languages have different words for or studies about externally induced versus immutable chemical depression.

Update, there's tons of research that shows chemical imbalances in the brain don't cause depression, at least not in some immutable way.

There's definitely not enough known about depression clinically yet to answer your question.

It's kind of like asking what color unicorns are before anybody has seen one in real life.

Depression is a symptom. Major depressive disorder is a disease.

Depression is the name for a set of symptoms. The cause of depression can be a disorder, a disease, or environmental.

The easy answer is it's both; the hard answer is it's complicated and here's a 2 hour long podcast scratching the surface.

Since there are distinct subtypes (unipolar, bipolar, melancholic, atypical, psychotic, catatonic, etc), there's probably different mechanisms underlying each one.

I think there are two separate things that are culturally called 'depression', but one of them is just inexplicable sadness.
We have a separation between feelings that we are allowed to feel and feelings that are frowned upon. Most negitive emotions belong to the former group. You are not supposed to feel hate, envy, anger or sadness. Sadness is only accptable in certain circumstances, like funerals, goodbyes, loss of a job, etc. So when people have an inexplicable period off sadness outside of those circumstances they often attribute it to depression. But this is a valid emotion that you are allowed and supposed to feel. And your body also has ways to deal with sadness. When I'm sad, I'm comfortable in knowing that eventually it is going to pass and there's going to be relief.

But then there is 'depression'. All of us are problem solvers, that's just how all our brains work. All our life, whatever the issue is we always try to find a solution. And if the solution is not apparent or non-existent we weigh the effort of continuing to look for a solution against the the severely of the problem. For most of our problems the solutions are easily apperent and if they are not, it is usually an issue that is not worth wrapping our heads around. But then there are people with problems that can't be ignored, fundamental issues of existence. And some of those problems are fundamentally unsolvable. So this is the point where your problem solving brain gets into a negative feedback loop of, 'can't ignore this problem, but theres no solution, but I can't ignore this problem, but theres no solution, but I can't ignore this problem, but theres no solution, ...'. Even if you are not thinking about it, it occupies your mind and drains you mentally to the point where even other easily solvable problems become monumental tasks for you preoccupied mind.

An example is, having a bad childhood, therefore missing crucial early social development, this cascades into missing out on early romantic relationships, the lack of experience makes you even more undesirable. Even if you develop that later in life, you can't turn back the clock, the time to experiment around has passend and now that everybody else around you is more mature you will always be held to a higher standard than you can fulfill. There is no solution to this, it is just the passage of time, natures law.
Another example is education, if all you life you've been told that all you need is a good education. And now suddenly the tides have turned and now the degree that you spend arguably the most important decade off your life barely pushing through is not even the bare minimum, you have a serious problem. You are to old and life has become to expensive to start over. Its even worse if on paper it shouldn't be that way. On every corner you're being told 'Yes, but not you'. Again, theres no solution. The dice keep rolling against you and you're running out of dice to roll.
Seeing young talented people is another cause of depression. Being reminded that there's nothing you are really good at because all your life you've been behind, swimming upstream to not get washed away. Having no time to get into anything because you were always looking for the most effortless distraction for you occupied mind. Even if you know now that it's not about talent but about dedication and practice. If you'd would start now to get good at something, by the time you're proficient enough you'd either be to old to impress or to old to enjoy you own proficiency. It'll be just a constant reminder that 'you could've started earlier'.

In general I would say that depression is a symptom of things that we can't but wish to control like the passage of time, luck, decay, etc. I also wouldn't call it a disease because it's more of a base line of complex life. There are basically two base lines, being completely unaware of your problems (being obliviously happy) and being hyperaware of your problems (being depressed). Ideally you would spend all your life right in the middle between those two. But depending on what type of person you are, if you are not actively working towards the middle you will naturally gravitate toward one or the other. The issue is that golden retriever energy people are usually not regarded as problematic, whereas downer people are.

I can be either, but for most it's a symptom and there are many reason, lack of sunlight, lack of social interaction(even for animals), lack of proper nutrition(can cause irateness). But for some it's not solvable without deep intervention from therapy and drugs.

Both. It can be a symptom of a larger issue or it can be a condition in its own right.

Either/or. Often times it's the primary disease, other times it's secondary. It is a disease of its own right, but can be the consequence of other diseases - whether psychological, neurological, or physical.

Tremor is maybe a more direct comparison than a cold. You can have essential tremor, in which tremors are idiopathic and the primary diagnosis. On the other hand, tremors can also be symptom of multiple sclerosis. It just depends on the individual.

Frequently, it's a chicken or the egg situation. Did the individual develop PTSD because they were already predisposed to/experiencing depression or did they become depressed after developing PTSD?

Sometimes depression is also just a natural consequence of being sick and/or disabled. Chronic pain, physical limitations, the inability to maintain a healthy social life, poverty as a consequence of disability - it can really take a toll on your mental health.

You shouldn't compare psychological disorder to organic disease. There is a reason they're called "disorder" and not "disease".

Organic disease have a very specific definition and very specifics criteria, so you can actually have a formal diagnosis process. It's epistemologically impossible to do so for psychological disorder, which have more broad definitions based completely over statistical norms.

P.s. while this is a very important distinction, this doesn't mean that psychological health is less important or that is not important to seek help and therapy for psychological suffering.

For me it's more of a baseline but that's not saying much.

Neither.

It is a condition.

Its a disease, it has its own symptoms. If two people get a virus they will both catch a cold. If two people lost their job one of them might try to commit suicide while other one might only gets sad.

Keep in mind there are twin studies that have demonstrated the clear genetic association to depression/BP.

This is an incredibly complex question : everything from cocaine rats to gut microbes show there are many facets to the answer, some of which we just don’t know.

Depression is a disease. Malaise is a symptom.

I would call it a disorder. Which in some way is a subcategory of disease but not quite the same thing.

Symptom of a society that hates people

I don't think depression is quite like catching a cold, for one thing a cold is a virus and it usually goes away in about seven days. And OTC meds can help relieve the pain and nasal drip. With depression, it's a mental state and condition usually having to do with imbalances in brain chemistry and other "mechanisms" in the brain.

And, it's also in many ways even more common than the common cold. Almost everyone has some depression at some point, and it's almost like it's hard-wired into our neurons to sometimes feel that way. So I almost think of it less as a disease and more of a condition of being human.

There's so much stigma about it and people are afraid to admit to it, but really depression is almost as normal as hunger or thirst.