Beginning of Essay
Hundreds of years ago, humans were plagued with "crazy fear". Then the Greeks blamed an imbalance of black bile for the melancholia suffered by so many people. Centuries later, in a country where Prozac and PMS jokes are part of the cultural landscape, we have a n ....

Middle of Essay
.... flaw" rather than being more correctly perceived as a recognized illness. Depressed? Sometimes it's hard to know what really is because it has become such a sweeping term, being used to describe everything from deep grief to daily frustrations. But to start with the most rigorous definition, Western psychiatry has a fairly standardized way of diagnosing . Coming from the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association", the following are the nine most common symptoms: - extended, unexplained sadness - loss of pleasure in formerly enjoyed activities - sleeping problems - significant weight loss ....