Am I Depressed?

I want to say up front that I am not a doctor, but I still want to share my thoughts about depression.  Even though I have a master's degree in counseling I had some trouble seeing depression in myself.  I knew that I did not feel emotionally well after my bypass surgery, but it was easy to label that feeling as anything but clinical depression.  I never wanted to admit that I was depressed. It was OK to feel down in the dumps, but depression was for other people. I finally started to come to grips with my own depression when my wife started to make it clear to me that I just wasn't anything like my old self. My first thought was, "I guess you wouldn't feel like your old self if you had just had your chest cracked open." But she persisted, and I started to listen and then I started pulling out some of my books from graduate school. I also went on line and took a simple online screening test for depression. You can find a good one right here.  I filled one out and it was off the charts. I think that, as much as anything, made me go to the doctor.  Finally admitting that I was really depressed also got me talking and helped me take the first step down the road to recovery.