Misconceptions about identifying depressed mood

  In my clinical work, I have encountered many visitors who ask to see my special clinic for mood disorders, but when I start to ask them about their emotions, they are stumped and do not know why. Do they really have something difficult to say? Actually, no. After careful questioning, I found that most of these visitors who could not answer about their emotional state did not have the ability to see their own emotional changes.  Emotion is a comprehensive psychological and physiological state of human feelings, thoughts and behaviors, a psychological response to external stimuli and the accompanying physiological responses, such as happiness, anger, sadness and joy. Emotions are subjective experiences and feelings of individuals and are often related to mood, temperament, character and disposition.  There is a huge difference in the expression of emotions between races and cultures. It is well known that Westerners are more outgoing, open, and often give off a feeling of enthusiasm and exuberance. The Orientals, especially the Chinese, who have a strong Confucian cultural heritage, have since ancient times advocated introversion and the middle ground. It seems that perseverance is a strength of the Chinese character, but it is also an important vulnerability factor for some people with depression. Those visitors who are unable to appreciate their emotional changes mostly adopt the psychological defense mechanisms of denial and repression to treat their negative emotions such as dissatisfaction, discomfort, pessimism, helplessness, and helplessness. On the other hand, although the importance of mental health in China is gradually being recognized by the general public, discrimination against mental illness is still serious. Many visitors are afraid that their depression will be misunderstood by people around them or even their family members as laziness, laziness and other quality problems. They are afraid that once they put on the “hat” of mental illness, they will be abandoned by the society, so they dare not admit or face their emotional problems.  The result of repression is inevitably the gradual aggravation and chronicity of the disease, and some patients will also develop somatization, i.e., unexplained physical discomfort, such as persistent headache, chest tightness, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, back pain, limb weakness, etc., and a variety of changes, but no obvious positive findings in clinical laboratory tests. This will lead to diagnostic difficulties and delay the best time for treatment.