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Hello and welcome to the Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday May 16th, 2024 and this is a special episode of

the excerpt.

When When a disorder or condition as a term like high functioning attached to it, that could mean

it may by its very nature be difficult to diagnose at all. Many of us have some experience with depression,

but what if it just didn't go away? And worse, no one could tell that's why we weren't

acting like our regular selves. So what is high functioning depression and what can be done for the people who are suffering with it?

To answer these questions, I'm joined by Vail Wright, the Senior Director of Health Care Innovation at the American Psychological Association.

Thanks for joining us, Vail.

Thanks so much for having me.

First, what is high-functioning depression?

High-functioning depression, it's not an official clinical term.

I think that's important for people to know.

It really was coined and popularized on social media to represent a certain presentation of depression.

And that presentation is somebody who seemingly seems like they have it all together in the outside.

They can go to work, they have relationships, they look like they're it all together in the outside. They can go to work, they have

relationships, they look like they're really engaging in life, but internally they're

suffering in a way that others really just can't see. And how does high-functioning

depression differ from other kinds of depression?

It's not necessarily that it differs from under kinds of depression.

I think what a potential benefit of this term is is it helps people understand that depression is not a one size

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