High-Functioning Depression: Dr. Judith Joseph on Signs, Struggles & Finding Joy Again

There are people who walk around with symptoms of depression, who are coping by functioning, but they're struggling in silence. Hi everyone, it's Rosie here. Welcome back to Radio Headspace. My guest today is Dr. Judith Joseph, psychiatrist, professor and expert on high functioning depression, a type of depression where everything seems normal on the outside, but inside you're struggling deeply, which I think many of us can relate to. This is such an important and timely conversation, and one I think you'll really enjoy. Dr. Judith, I am so excited to be chatting with you today. I've been looking forward to this conversation for a really, really long time. I've done some pretty extensive research on you and your background and what you're doing, so thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to speak with you as well. Well, I see that you're wearing your lab coat. I'm gonna assume you're at your office. Yes, I'm in my research lab. I see a mixture of research patients and therapy patients throughout the day. It's really interesting because one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about, I recently started, well, not recently, it's been a year in, I'm in the graduate program for clinical psychology currently, and I am at this crossroads right now where I'm trying to figure out exactly like where I wanna go from here, because I don't know that I am going to go the therapy route. I'm really interested in the world of research, and I know that part of what has led you to the path that you're on now is also that you have this drive and passion for learning and doing research, and that's why you started the Happiness Lab. Right? It's called Manhattan Behavioral Medicine, but I have a section of it called the Happiness Lab. So excited. So what got you into this field of work? Well, I started off as an anesthesiology resident, and two years into anesthesiology, I found myself just like not really enjoying it. You know, 90% of the time it's pretty smooth sailing, and you're putting a patient on anesthesia, and then they're going through surgery. Then you take out the tube and you wake them up, and then they go about their way. You never see them again and I just found that very unfulfilling because I like to talk to people. I'm a very social person, and I remembered my psychiatry rotation when I was a medical student, really enjoying some of those electives. I did one in South Africa with these orphans, and we did trauma focused therapies, and I just found that so fulfilling and it just, it really stuck with me, that memory. So I was fortunate and I got a spot at Columbia and I interviewed for this spot, and I got it, and I never looked back. My way of like continuing to use my hands...