Birthdays, milestones to the grave...

[sandyRoe]

Could thinking like this be described as a symptom of depression?

[boxtops]

I think these sort of thoughts come to all of us as we get older, a shot of realism suddenly kicks in.

[dothawkes31]

well it is a bit of a 'half empty' attitude, if someone who was previously not of this opinion then maybe they have had a bad experience/event in their life. But I would say generally that people with depression give little outward signals other than they may stay in bed all day.

[boxtops]

It's also been commented recently on here that there is a huge difference between being depressed about something, and actually being diagnosed with clinical depression. There are times when we wonder about the future etc., but (having been there) people with clinical depression may not even think as far as the next day. It's important to maintain the distinction - being low about something, as dot says being "half empty" doesn't mean that a person has depression.

[sandyRoe]

Thank you both. Food for thought there

[jno]

no, I think real depression - as opposed to just feeling gloomy - goes a lot deeper than that. Anyway, they aren't milestones to the grave because most of us don't know how far away the grave is. What we do know is how far off our birth was, because that's what birthdays measure.