Depression is a disorder, while sadness is a feeling according to Lethbridge College psychiatrist John Kennedy.
To be labeled as depression there must be lasting symptoms like problems with sleep and loss of appetite. If a person is bummed out for a couple of days, that isn’t depression. If the person is bummed out for two weeks, that could be depression.

Kennedy says depression alters the way the body functions and is much more like grief. Depression is the absence of the ability to feel joy.
Depression is common and has been on the rise globally over the past 30 years.  
One in four women experience depression and 95 per cent of them will experience it a second time.
Only one in eight men experience depression and the reasons are mostly unknown. They could be due to social supports like equality, having children out of wedlock and being single. The opportunities are not there for social supports but still the expectations remain.
College is a stressful life-changing event that in a lot of cases results in homesickness and/or a lack of friends to start.
These are things that contribute to higher rates of depression. These trends are particularly seen in first-year students and contribute to higher dropout rates.
Depression is a disorder of the nerves. There is physical evidence that shows the brain stops working properly.
Unrecognized and untreated, depression affects one’s perception and behavior.
Severe depression is a pain disorder.
Kennedy used the comparison of someone having bone cancer earlier on in life and later having depression. He says depression is far more painful.
With depression triggering feelings of anger, finding a way to cope may lead to the consumption of alcohol.
“Most depressions don’t require medications, they require therapy”, says Kennedy.
For example, if someone has a bad bruise on a thigh, the bruise doesn’t require high-powered medicines, it requires rest and physical therapy like ice, heat and stretching.
“This is equal to what therapy is”, says Kennedy. With medication alone, the person doesn’t learn but studies have shown that the combination of medicine and therapy works best.
Kennedy assesses people with complicated illnesses. One in 100 people have someone in their family who is bipolar.
Coming into the months of February, March and April, in the northern hemisphere it is known to be true that the suicide rates increase fourfold.
It could be because of seasonal changes, better weather, when people’s expectations don’t get realized and biological changes.
However, it is fairly unknown what causes suicides.
“Change itself turns on suicidal ideation”, says Kennedy, but suicidal thoughts are not normal.
In this province’s health region last year, there was the highest rate of suicide.
Sometimes small things can help a person such as making an effort to be nice, not to be intrusive, just being friendly.
Kennedy recalled a story he was told when he was studying in school.
 “This boy said hello to this girl in the elevator and it turned out she was going to the roof to jump; him saying hello stopped her.”
That’s sometimes all it takes; a simple hello.