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Melancholia or melancholy (from Greek: µέλαινα χολή melaina chole, [1] meaning black bile) [2] is a concept found throughout ancient, medieval, and premodern medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly depressed mood, bodily complaints, and sometimes hallucinations and delusions.
Allegory on melancholy, from c. 1729 –1740, etching and engraving, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City) Life events Adversity in childhood , such as bereavement, neglect, mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or unequal parental treatment of siblings, can contribute to depression in adulthood.
Anhedonia is a diverse array of deficits in hedonic function, including reduced motivation or ability to experience pleasure. [1] While earlier definitions emphasized the inability to experience pleasure, anhedonia is currently used by researchers to refer to reduced motivation, reduced anticipatory pleasure (wanting), reduced consummatory pleasure (liking), and deficits in reinforcement learning.
In medicine, malaise is a feeling of general discomfort, uneasiness or lack of wellbeing and often the first sign of an infection or other disease. [1] The word has existed in French since at least the 12th century. The term is often used figuratively in other contexts, in addition to its meaning as a general state of angst or melancholia.
The core issue responsible for the inner conflict is the impression that the individual's desire to lead a meaningful life is thwarted by an apparent lack of meaning, also because they feel much confusion about what meaning really is, and are constantly questioning themselves. In this sense, existential crises are crises of meaning.
Melancholia and melancholy had been used interchangeably until the 19th century, but the former came to refer to a pathological condition and the latter to a temperament. [3] The term depression was derived from the Latin verb deprimere, "to press down". [12] From the 14th century, "to depress" meant to subjugate or to bring down in spirits.
Melancholy is said to allow one to "feel connected to the ecstasies of the universe", but depression is a source of despair. [21] Though the two states "take you to completely different destinations", Cain posits that melancholy and depression themselves probably differ as a matter of degree rather than as a matter of kind. [ 21 ]
Some individuals, when feeling sad, may exclude themselves from a social setting, so as to take the time to recover from the feeling. [ citation needed ] While being one of the moods people most want to shake, sadness can sometimes be perpetuated by the very coping strategies chosen, such as ruminating, "drowning one's sorrows", or permanently ...