Harry Depressed?

[Michal]

No: HPFGUIDX 70041

Tyler:
> I'm afraid I have to disagree with that. Harry's
> symptoms are not those of a depression. Stress, yes, anger and
> anxiousness, for sure, but not depression.
> 
> Marina wrote:
<snip>
<<I'm not sure if Harry really is depressed, but he does have a 
number of symptoms that fit.  And he certainly has good *cause* to be 
depressed.>>
> 
> Tyler:
> I'd have to go with anger and being quick tempered to
> describe Harry's behavior in OoP, myself. Also with
> being 15. My idea as that we'll see obvious depression
> in Harry at the beginning of book 6.  THe death of
> Sirius, coupled with the knowledge of the prophecy,
> will trigger a fairly heavy depresson that he will
> have to overcome. Teenage depression around age 16
> seems pretty common, so it would fit well with Harry's
> development as well.
> 

Me (Michal):
I would say that Harry, while certainly displaying some signs of 
depression, can't really be classified as "depressed." Depression is 
an illness, and one of the symptoms of that illness is that the 
*other* symptoms occur *every day for most of the day for at least 
two weeks.* Harry is definitely struggling through some teen angst, 
coupled with the whole "I have to save the world, and the darkest 
wizard of our age is after me" thing, but I wouldn't call him 
depressed *yet.* I do, however agree with the fact that if the 
advance guard hadn't come to bring him to Grimmauld place, he might 
have slipped into a depressive episode.

What clinches my opinion, though, is that Harry hasn't lost interest 
in the things that bring him joy. Yes, he has a hard time focusing on 
his reading for those 4 days alone in his room, but who wouldn't? He 
still finds pleasure in playing Quidditch, and I think that speaks 
volumes about his mental health surviving thus far.

In response to Harry possibly being depressed about Sirius's death, 
I'm just going to nitpick wording and comment that bereavement is not 
the same thing as depression. It can spiral into depression 
sometimes, and the symptoms are similar, but it is not actually the 
same thing. For the first week after I read OoP, I thought I was 
heading into a depressive episode, but I was actually just mourning 
for Sirius.

Anyway, I suppose I've rambled long enough.

Michal, who is happy to discover that her Psych. degree isn't 
*totally* useless!
-Arthur Weasley for Minister of Magic