In English, we can communicate temporary, everyday unhappiness or sadness by saying "I feel depressed." If we've been diagnosed with the disease of depression, we can distinguish it from temporary unhappiness by saying "I have clinical depression." In Japanese, perhaps because the kanji are complex, I had thought 憂鬱 （ゆううつ）referred to clinical depression, while 落ち込む was used for temporary sadness. But looking at some sample sentences, 憂鬱 can apparently (exclusively?) be used for temporary unhappiness, while 鬱病 (うつ病）means to have the disease of depression. Are these words used as I have indicated? Are there other words used as well? And while I don't want to get too technical in an area I know little about, do Japanese commonly distinguish various types of clinical depression in everyday speech, or is 鬱病 (or another word) commonly used for all types?
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Linked pages in Wikipedia: Depression (mood) ↔ 抑うつ (抑鬱), Melancholia / melancholy ↔ メランコリー (憂鬱), Major depressive disorder / clinical depression ↔ うつ病 (鬱病) / 大うつ病性障害), Bipolar disorder / manic depression ↔ 双極症, …– ArfreverCommented yesterday
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… Dysthymia / persistent depressive disorder / dysthymic disorder ↔ 気分変調症.– ArfreverCommented yesterday
1 Answer
As medical jargon, depression as a disease entity is 鬱病【うつびょう】, which is a convenient shorthand for 大鬱病性障害 ("major depressive disorder") as defined in DSM-5. A temporary depressive state is distinguished as 抑鬱【よくうつ】(状態), which is not necessarily a pathological condition.
Despite its super-heavy appearance, 憂鬱 is actually more of a lay term meaning "feeling blue/down", and is generally avoided in formal medical contexts. It's typically used casually like テスト前だから憂鬱だ ("I'm feeling blue due to the upcoming exam") or 雨の日は憂鬱になる ("Rainy days get me down"). 落ち込む sounds considerably more serious and thus closer to "depressed" to me; for example, 妻を失って落ち込む sounds natural but 妻を失って憂鬱になる sounds strange because it's too light. Laypeople generally don't use 抑鬱, but they do distinguish between 憂鬱 (temporary mood) and 鬱病 (formal disease name).
Regarding "various types of clinical depression in everyday speech", 躁鬱病 (≈"manic depression"; in medical terms, 双極性障害 "bipolar disorder") is probably the only "variant" recognized among laypeople, though this is not medically a subtype of 鬱病.
