How can I figure out if I’m depressed or just lazy? What is depression? There are many ways to define depression.  The DSM and ICD take descriptive approaches, outlining a set of symptom criteria that coincide with depressive episodes.  Psychodynamic therapists formulations explain it in theoretical terms, summarized simply as “anger turned inward.”  Behaviorists posited that depression results from a lack of reinforcement, whether positive or negative, in one’s environment.  And patriarch of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, created depression in a laboratory using dogs by applying behavioral principles. He called named is lab-induced depression “learned helplessness.” I’ll do my best here to make my own definition combining the merits of all three definitions. Let’s start with the core components.  They are: Depression is an emotional and physiological state. Depression emotionally feels like resignation, giving up, hopelessness and despair. On top of the experience of giving up, depression also registers emotionally as guilt over not being good enough and/or having failed to live up to what’s expected of him/her.  Guilt results from self-consciousness, self-critique, and what …