Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Depression: Symptom or Something Deeper?

14 Aug 2025 · 1 min

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0:35

A short video by Aaron Hartman, MD exploring whether 'depression' is best understood as a symptom versus a standalone diagnosis. The speaker emphasizes that people often label varied feelings (irritation, disappointment, grief) as 'depression' and argues for more precise identification of emotional states; notes that clinical depression is a symptom cluster that co-occurs with other symptoms.

Chapters

So depression is a symptom, and sometimes people say they're depressed, but they're actually not necessarily depressed. They could be irritated, they could be disappointed, they might be grieving. So, you know, it's kind of a word that's thrown out around a lot for. For a variety of types of feelings that. That probably would best serve people to be more accurate about what they're actually experiencing. That being said, you know, the diagnosis of depression, it's still a symptom that occurs with other symptoms.