Primary-care depression patients present fatigue, not sadness

Evidence

The depressed individual consulting a gp was rarely sad; he was limp with fatigue and seeking stimulus. Patients were clearly complaining of the problems the media found most appealing. The most visible symptoms and the types of complaints being voiced derived, in the vast majority of cases, from neurotic or reactive depressions. — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 639

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the popular image of the sad depressive; ties to deflation/energy-loss models of mood. — connects to: Treatment response, not diagnosis, confirmed masked depression cases — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 642; Fatigue becomes bearable or intolerable only through reflective consciousness conferring value — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1103; Deep tiredness enables a special kind of perception and calm — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 82
• SEED: An essay angle on how the popular imagination of ‘depression as sadness’ lags the clinical reality of ‘depression as energy failure’.

Broader Connections

• Fatigue becomes bearable or intolerable only through reflective consciousness conferring value #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1103
• Deep tiredness enables a special kind of perception and calm #complicates (0.72) — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 82