Janet, You wrote: > my experience with clinical depression [cd] > has taught me that 'willpower' > has no bearing on > getting out of a clinical depression I have no doubt whatsoever that anyone suffering from CD needs profesional help to climb out of it. I am also aware that CD is experienced by a great many PWP. However I am concerned with what seems to be a blanket approach to depression and PD. Having PD does not mean you automatically have CD. I would suspect that at some point everyone diagnosed with PD feels sad. How could we not. I would be extremly worried about the mental health of anyone who never felt sad about having a chronic life altering condition. But being SAD does not of itself mean you have CD, and for those of us who are sad but not clinically depressed the time comes when we have to choose to put aside the sorrow and get on with our lives. Those of us who find this impossible to do are the candidates for a diagnosis of clinical depression. I have no doubt that CD is underdiagnosed in the general population, but I suspect that it may be overdiagnosed amoung PWP. Dennis. ************************************************* Dennis Greene 48/10 [log in to unmask] http://members.networx.net.au/~dennisg/ **************************************************