I cry every day–should I get an antidepressant?

Maybe.

Everyone gets depressed at times. It’s like having cold, but instead of coughs and sneezes you have congested feelings. Just like you don’t have to have surgery for a cold unless something has gone terribly wrong; you don’t have to have shock treatments for depression unless something has gone terribly wrong.

The tricky part is that depression can begin to feed itself. The longer it goes on the more likely it is that you’ll get stuck in the cycle of sad thoughts, sad feelings and sad actions that lead to more sad thoughts.

Depression is one of the few words I dislike as a word. Just saying it makes one sag and pout. There are dozens of better, more specific ways to communicate levels of sadness. Here’s my scale:

Devastated: The top of the seriousness scale would be the urge to hurt yourself or others. If you…