Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
“Just snap out of it!” If you have ever complained about feeling sad, chances are someone has told you to try to change your mood with your willpower or by eating a favorite food such as chocolate ice cream.
People who are not in the medical field don’t always understand the difference between a temporary sadness and true depression. Some people think that depression is a bad mood that can be cured with a funny movie or a positive attitude. However, most people in the medical field believe that depression is a serious illness that may require medication to treat. Hear Lily and Mason’s thoughts about depression in this health English lesson.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
![]() |
![]() |
Mason: I am so excited to be heading out of the winter season soon.
Lily: Oh, yes.
Mason: Because the gray outside. The cold, it kind of gets me down a little bit.
Lily: Yeah, that’s actually a real thing. It’s called Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Mason: Yeah. So I don’t know that I suffer from that in any sort of clinical sense. But certainly not, like, a true depression.
Lily: Mmm hmm. That’s a very serious issue. True depression.
Mason: You know, I certainly know some people who’ve struggled with that. You know, and they take meds and whatnot and and I am a believer that it certainly works. I tend to find my fairly naive perspective, though, is that, like, I just wanna believe you could do it without the drugs.
Lily: That you could raise yourself out of your melancholy and your bleak outlook on life just by your own sheer will force.
Mason: And I’m probably wrong. Like, I’ve talked with these people enough about it.
Lily: Yeah.
Mason: That it’s a chemical thing, so literally you’d like to think it’s just your mood, but there are very biological things happening that kind of contribute to that so.
Lily: Yeah, there are actually drugs, pysch drugs, for chemical imbalances in your brain that cause these mood swings and funks and things like that.
Mason: Whereas I just wanna believe that you know you can snap out of it, have some chocolate ice cream, you know, watch a good comedy, and you’re good to go.
Lily: Chocolate ice cream solves a lot of things.
Grammar Point
Go Super to learn "Simple Present Tense" from this lesson
Quizzes
Lesson MP3
The iTEP® test
-
Sponsored by
Discussion
Mason is glad that winter is almost over because the gray weather gets him down. Mason and Lily talk about how some people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, a kind of depression.
Mason and Lily think that medication can help people. Lily says some people have a chemical imbalance. Mason wants to think that some people can just snap out of their depression.
Do you know anyone who suffers from depression? What do you think helps people with depression? Have you ever had depression?
Comments
Russian Federation |
Iran, Islamic Republic Of |
South Korea |
Iran, Islamic Republic Of |
Russian Federation |
Sudan |
China |
United States |
Japan |
Germany |
Pakistan |
Pakistan |
Russian Federation |
Taiwan |
Iran, Islamic Republic Of |
Iran, Islamic Republic Of |
China |
India |
Morocco |
Egypt |