You are right .. depression has an effect on those beyond the depressed .. it reaches far and wide.

true majior depression is not addictive. Learning behaviors is. If you are not depressed you can not catch depression. So tired of reading this bullshit from people. it is demeaning.

So the depressed are catching it from others? If only it were that easy. It'd be much easier to get rid of.

I have often heard the statement "(so and so) really brings me down".

I'll agree it's a thing that is easy to sympathize with and feel their pain with others as they feel it. Addicted to being depressed, I can say it's a thing I fight tooth and nail every time I feel it, I flee it at the drop of a 'doggone it' But I don't think speaking or going around other depressed people is what is pulling me into it because all I'd have to do is avoid other depressed people and it'd be gone. Certainly hasn't work that way for me. Sometimes other depressed people and I even laugh together,,,, just my opinion of course. Hugs to those feeling it alone.

being down is not depression. seems lots of people do not understand that at all.
the op would then have to think gee i live with an alcholic therefore I will become one. totally not true.

Its true, being around someone you care about who doesn't care for themselves hurts, not being able to help their pain hurts, it makes you feel bad, depressed, sad and useless.

I wish I knew how to be stronger and could stop hurting people around me...

sad and upset do not equal depression

Depends on your definition -

"Major depressive disorder (MDD) (also known as recurrent depressive disorder, clinical depression, major depression, unipolar depression, or unipolar disorder) is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities"

Low mood, sadness etc are symptomatic of depression and certainly prolonged periods of feeling like that are hallmarks of depression.

I agree with many of your points on other posts - that major depression is certainly biologically caused and beyond many peoples control especially without medication, therapy, exercise etc. However, I don't agree that "major depression" is entirely separate from circumstance and situation - I do not know which is a cause and which is a symptom. But I think that's another topic and don't want to derail this thread...

I think the op is saying that when you have been depressed before but have been having a reprieve,a person you live with who is on a downer with depression can bring you down or trigger your own depression.
I don't think they are trying to say it is catching like a cold.

Peacemaker I think that if one is co-dependent or extrodinarily empathetic it may become a problem to be around those who are depressed. This would not be the fault of the one depressed however, but of the person taking it all in and not creating healthy boundaries.
The scenario described above echos co-dependency.

Best to you.

no one can make a person relapse. the person allows themself to be in or stay in toxic situations.

oh it would be good if the world was black or white maryjane

Typically: Thank you for the clarification. I do not mean like catching a cold. I mean trigger. I am on this group forum because of depressive issues of my own (and a STRONG family history of depression) I apologize if anyone was offended by my post earlier. I was expressing a feeling just after being with with my mother who has suffered for years from depression. I have been away from her working on my own depression. I feel like I am almost out of the well...and when I was with her, those old feelings came flooding back. Thanks though to everyone for their honest feedback!

Yep, depression is contagious alright. I enlightened members here yesterday to the fact that for the first 7 years of our lives we are unable to analyze what we are taught, in other words what we are taught, fact or fiction is believed by us to be fact. If we live with depressed parents during this time, what are we taught as being the norm? A scary revelation, and a good reason why so many of readily accept misery as opposed well of health, we simply KNOW no better.