If you're always battling the blues, you may be depressed. 
Here's how to break free -- and feel good again.

Suzanne Blumberg understands one thing: her ongoing depression stems from the pain that debilitates her. "If I could get up and do the things I love I would be a much happier person," says the 54-year-old Somerset, N.J., resident. Until 1988, good spirits came naturally to Blumberg. A golfer and volleyball player, she loved being active, and she thrived on her job as a kitchen designer. But when the aches and pains started, Blumberg's spirits plummeted. For years, doctors told her she was simply stressed from work and from raising two children alone. Finally, in 1998, when she was diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), her chronic depression made sense as well.

Blumberg is not alone; pain and depression are common partners. Sixty percent of the 19 million Americans diagnosed with depression also have some kind of physical discomfort. For Blumberg and others living with arthritis - including RA and fibromyalgia - the chances for depression are almost double that of the well population. In fact, according to rheumatologist Joel Rutstein, MD, director of the Arthritis Diagnostic and Treatment Center in San Antonio, Texas, 90 percent of those with rheumatic diseases will suffer depression during the course of their disease. 

Day-in, day-out depression can truly debilitate, sidelining work, social life and, in the most severe cases, the will to live.

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