What would you call "periodic" depression?

Try taking the self-test here. See how it comes out.

its an either or deal. Depression is hormonal, mental and emotional. It happens to everyone. I deal with it at times. I go through long periods. It happens for any reason. There are all sorts of explantions from doctors but only you can figure the real reason…....i think i flew off topic. Let me know if you think this is helpful.

Depression is a complex diagnosis ranging from dysthymia through Major Clinical Depression.

All of the diagnoses are highly amenable to treatment, and almost all have the potential to be lethal if left untreated, so I strongly suggest that you seek assistance, preferable with a Cognitive-Behavioral psychotherapist.

I would call it “Being in a bad mood”

This is a really interesting question! Before I say anything else let me warn you that I study sex hormones for a living so I have a huge bias. Since you mentioned hormones, that put up a big red flag for me. There is a very strong relationship between hormones and mood.

Personally, I have found that I have one very bad day a month, right before my period starts. I can identify with what you’re describing—during that one day I am totally useless and it’s so awful that it feels completely different from just being in a bad mood.

One thing that might be helpful would be to see if there is any relationship between your hormones and mood by keeping track of both your menstrual cycle and your mood. I did this by making a spreadsheet in Google documents. One column had the date, another column had which day of my menstrual cycle I was on, and another column had overall mood on a scale from 1 to 9. I found that there was a very consistent and obvious relationship between my hormones and mood.

If you find there is a strong relationship there, you could talk to a doctor about taking birth control pills (or the patch or the ring). I have heard of some doctors prescribing them in situations like this. Unfortunately there’s no way to know if they’ll make it better, worse, or have no change until you try them.

And this is just one possibility. There are lots of things that can make you feel that way. I am a big supporter of data, so if I were you I’d consider tracking a lot of things to try to pin down the cause of these awful days. If it turns out not to be hormones, maybe it’s due to changes in diet, or changes in your sleep patterns, or changes in exercise? Lots of possibilities. Good luck and keep us posted. (And if you want to talk more about sex hormones I am always happy to!!)

@nikipedia, I found your answer interesting.

However, I am already on birth control, and have been for some time. (I’m also on what I believe is called “non-cyclical” birth control, where you take hormones for 3 months, then you get your period.)

I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if other hormones (the ones not controlled/regulated by birth control) were to blame. My moods do seem somewhat cyclical.

@nikipedia “I did this by making a spreadsheet…“Nerd. :)

@tinyfaery, spreadsheets are awesome. Excel is like crack for nerds. :D

I would call it “Monday”

For most people, I’d call it part of the life cycle but for some when it interferes with their health significantly or they are suicidal then they need help.

@tinyfaery: guilty as charged :)

@evegrimm: Was this an issue before you started using that kind of birth control?

I call mine “Louise.” She visits frequently.

@nikipedia, it happened with both kinds of birth control (I recently switched from the generic for Mircette to Yaz).

@PaulCC, it’s Tuesday. :D