I have Dysthymia, or, in simple terms, persistent depressive disorder. It’s fairly common, affecting around 3 million people in the US (thank you, Google), but it is less common than major depressive disorder, which affects around 16 million people in the US and is what most people tend to associate or understand as depression. A person with persistent depressive disorder, like myself, can experience major depression, which is then called double depression – how fun is that. But when you have persistent depressive disorder, it means you’ve been in a state of depression for two or more years, and there are moments of it when it’s alleviated but basically, you don’t go more than two months without depression (thank you MayoClinic)