Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1111, Symptoms of Depression.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 11111.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Emily and Siobhan about symptoms or signs of depression.
Let's get started.
How can you tell?
Have you noticed any other symptoms?
He seems to have trouble concentrating and has insomnia.
Um, really?
Yes, and I'm afraid he's having suicidal thoughts.
He seems distant and distracted, staring off into space.
He's not his usual self.
How can you tell?
What do you mean?
I mean, he looks the same to me.
He just swims back and forth in the fish tank.
Somebody is.
Emily begins by saying to Siobhan, I think Jackson is depressed.
To be depressed means to have feelings of extreme sadness and what we might describe as hopelessness.
Like you, can't see a possible good outcome for your situation.
Depression is the noun form of the verb to be depressed.
Siobhan says, how can you tell?
The phrase how can you tell?
T-E-L-L is used to ask someone to explain how they know, what they know, what evidence they are using.
What are the indications that they are seeing that would lead them to this conclusion?
Emily says, well, he's been suffering from a loss of appetite and is generally lethargic.
To suffer from something is to experience a problem from some situation, often an injury or an illness.
We say people suffer from diseases.
He suffers from malaria.
He has the disease of malaria and is feeling the negative effects of that disease.
Emily says that Jackson is suffering from a loss of appetite, A-P-P-E-T-I-T-E.
Your appetite is your interest in food.
You're feeling hungry for food.
So a loss of appetite would be a lack of interest in food when you don't feel hungry.
Jackson is also, according to Emily, lethargic.
L-E-T-H-A-R-G-I-C.
Lethargic is an adjective describing someone who doesn't have a lot of energy, who seems very tired, or perhaps simply isn't interested in the world around him.
Siobhan says, have you noticed any other symptoms?
A symptom.
S-Y-M-P-T-O-M is a physical condition that is a result of, or a consequence of, an injury or an illness.
So if you have say, the flu influenza, one of the symptoms might be a fever, a high temperature.
That indicates or tells you that you are sick.
Siobhan is asking Emily if she has noticed any other indications or symptoms that Jackson is depressed.
Emily responds he seems to have trouble concentrating and has insomnia.
To concentrate means to focus your attention on something without being distracted.
Insomnia I-N-S-O-M-N-I-A is the inability to fall asleep or to remain asleep.
Someone with insomnia is often up late at night because he cannot sleep.
In fact, insomnia really means the inability to sleep.
It That is to say, it could be a symptom of many different kinds of illnesses or problems.
Or maybe you're just drinking too much coffee at night, although usually the cause is more serious.
Emily says that Jackson is having trouble concentrating and has insomnia.
Siobhan says, um, really?
Emily says, yes.
And I'm afraid he's having suicidal thoughts.
The word suicidal S-U-I-C-I-D-A-L relates to having thoughts about wanting to kill yourself, about wanting to end your own life.
Emily says that Jackson seems distant and distracted. staring off into space.
He's not his usual self.
To be distant, D-I-S-T-A-N-T, means to seem as though you aren't really connected to the person you're talking to, or you're not perhaps even paying attention to the person you're talking to. or you're very reserved emotionally.
You're not indicating your feelings or emotions to the other person.
All of those could be described as being distant.
To be distracted.
D-I-S-T-R-A-C-T-E-D means not being able to concentrate, or focus because you're thinking about something else.
If you are sitting at a cafe talking to your wife or girlfriend and a beautiful woman walks by, you might get distracted.
You might look over at the beautiful woman instead of listening to your wife or girlfriend.
This is a very, very bad idea guys, because she will notice and well, let's just say, your life will be a little less happy that day.
So... distracted is usually a condition that you do not want to be in.
It's usually a bad thing.
Now, sometimes when people are feeling sad or something bad happens, you want to be distracted.
That is, you don't want to concentrate on the bad thing.
You want to be distracted by something else.
So it can sometimes be a good thing if what you are being distracted from is a bad thing.
So you may think being distracted from your wife or girlfriend is a good thing, and your wife or girlfriend might think something else.
Anyway, back to our story.
Emily describes Jackson as... staring off into space.
To stare, S-T-A-R-E, means to look at something for a long time, to focus on something.
To stare off into space means to look out at nothing, in particular, to seem to be thinking about something in and not focusing on anything that you're actually looking at.
So it's an interesting expression.
Normally, to stare at something means to focus on something.
But if we say someone is staring off into space, we mean a person is looking in a certain direction, looking at something, it seems.
His eyes are open, but he's not actually focusing on anything physical, if you will.
He's thinking about something else.
Another verb we might use here is to daydream.
D-A-Y-D-R-E-A-M.
To daydream means to be thinking about things in a distracted way, rather than what you should be thinking about.
Emily finally says that Jackson is not his usual self.
Your usual U-S-U-A-L self, S-E-L-F, is the way you normally act, is the way you normally behave.
If someone says he's not his usual self, we mean he's acting strangely.
He's acting differently from the way that we would expect him to act.
Siobhan says, how can you tell?
Once again, the same expression.
How do you know?
Emily says, what do you mean?
Siobhan says, I mean, he looks the same to me.
He just swims back and forth in the fish tank.
All this time we think that Siobhan and Emily are talking about a human being being depressed, but no, it seems as though they're talking about a fish.
Many people like to keep fish in their houses in a container called a fish tank, T-A-N-K.
Fish tanks are usually made of glass so that you can see the fish swimming back and forth.
Now, you see, I think fish would be one pet that I might enjoy, because you don't really have to do anything for the fish.
You don't have to take the fish for a walk.
You have to clean up after the fish a little bit, I guess, and feed the fish, but really...
Fish don't really require a lot of work.
I think it's the kind of animal that I might enjoy having in my house.
Well, Emily and Siobhan apparently have a fish and they're worried that the fish is depressed.
Emily says, just look at him.
He's on the edge of mental collapse.
To be on the edge E-D-G-E of something means to be almost in that situation, almost in that condition, but not quite.
Mental, M-E-N-T-A-L, refers to your mind.
Collapse C-O-L-L-A-P-S-E is when something either falls down or breaks down or no longer works the way it should.
Mental collapse would be someone who is no longer able to think rationally who, we might say, loses his mind.
To be on the edge of mental collapse means that you are almost in that situation where you are no longer able to think rationally.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I think Jackson is depressed.
How can you tell?
Well, he's been suffering from a loss of appetite and is generally lethargic.
Have you noticed any other symptoms?
He seems to have trouble concentrating and has insomnia.
Um, really?
Yes, and I'm afraid he's having suicidal thoughts.
He seems distant and distracted, staring off into space.
He's not his usual self.
How can you tell?
What do you mean?
I mean, he looks the same to me.
He just swims back and forth in the fish tank.
Just look at him.
He's on the edge of mental collapse.
Somebody is.
Our scriptwriter is never distracted when she's writing her scripts.
I speak, of course, of the wonderful Dr. Lucy Saye.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
