| 'Depressed mood' is regularly used in both psychology and medicine. "The patient arrived in a depressed state" does not mean that they have one of the ongoing illesses of Depression. Medical professionals do not ever call something clinical depression. I used to work in a neurology lab, and I heard consultant neurologists use the term. I do not agree with 'do not ever'. Unless you're counting medical specialists that take 13 years to train as somehow not being 'professionals'. Just googling 'clinical depression' comes up with a few links of professionals (like the Mayo Clinic) using the term. The important thing to not is that just because a term might not be in the DSM does not mean that the term is not used or meaningless. Yes, I'll agree, it's not used to refer to one specific disorder, but that doesn't make it meaningless. You are not depressed, because depression is an illness. Depression is an illness. It is also a transient state. You're doing the same thing as those people who say "but 'kid' actually means 'baby goat'". The other problem with "clinical" is that it is widely used by cranks Fallacy of association: Cars are widely used by criminals, therefore we should not use cars.
Would you really correct a co-worker who said 'bob is depressed because his team lost last night' with 'no he's not, because depression is an illness'? |