Is depression a state of mind Is a mood an excuse used to avoid personal interactions? Or maybe it's an attempt to illicit sympathy? Or is it an actual disease? Actually, it can be all of those things. Clinical depression is a major depressive disorder affecting about 7-18% of the population at some in their lives. But for most people, when they say they're depressed, they're referring to the depressed mood. This depression rarely lasts long. It comes and goes and is usually brought on by a number of different things. Depression affects people in different ways. Some people prefer to be alone. They cut themselves off from friends and family in an attempt to work their way through the mood in their own time. Others throw themselves into social activities, preferring to ignore it until it goes away. Still others tend to dwell on it and try to draw the people around them into a similar state of depression, embracing the philosophy that "misery loves company". There are also the people that seem to live in a state of constant depression. For some of these people, the diagnosis is functional depression and treatment would be advised. But for others, it's more of a continual mood. Some people just seem to enjoy being unhappy. Their negative outlook of themselves, those around them and life in general keep them in this continual depression. On occasion it is an attempt to get sympathy, but for some people, it's just the way they are.