It (depression) is not a fleeting sadness but a pervasive and relentless sense of despair. A lack of interest in life accompanied by weight loss, loss of appetite, feelings of uselessness and sleep disturbance are some of the more common symptoms.

People with depression can’t just ‘snap-out of it’.

There can be an array of causes – it can be due to stresses in the home or at work, or it can just come out of the blue. Sometimes family history can be a major factor.

– Professor Scott Henderson, former Director of NHMRC Centre for Mental Health Research at ANU

While there is a medical list of symptoms which summarises to less than a dozen or so bullet points, there is nothing simple about identifying depression as an illness, getting the right treatment, learning to control the illness rather than have it control us, preventing relapse or any of the many other issues involved in reducing the impact of depression on our lives and the lives of those around us.

Living with and/or loving someone with depression has its own myriad of complex issues for which there are no simple answers.

We are all different and what works for us will depend on the particular nature of our illness, our personalities, our life situation, support networks, and so much more.

With many of these issues, it is the ability to communicate with other people like us who live with depression that is often needed to find what works for us best, and fastest.