When you first receive the bad news that you've got something, everything changes in that instant. You may have gone in for your annual physical, expecting routine tests with routine results. This time, however, you get the phone call asking you to come to the office to discuss your test results. Or, you're sitting on the exam table in that fashionable, yet drafty, paper garment, and the nurse comes into the room, asks you to get dressed, and meet the doctor in his office. You know immediately this is not good, and you wish that you'd taken better care of that body while it was still in A-1 condition.

Whatever the diagnosis turns out to be, it will most likely involve you making some lifestyle changes. You're going to need to change your diet, go on medication, maybe have surgery. For the rest of your life, that condition will always be either on your mind or very close to the surface. And just when you didn't need anything else on your mind, along with the condition comes stress. It's like a one-two punch — you may begin to experience depression because of the condition or the medications used to treat the condition may cause depressive symptoms. Either way, you're not feeling really great.

You're probably familiar with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. She's the one who discovered the five stages a person goes through when faced with the prospect of death. The stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. But it's not just terminal patients who experience these stages — anyone who receives a life-changing diagnosis may have to work through them. Even if you've gone to the doctor with a suspicion, confirmation of that suspicion may first result in denial. It's the depressive stage, however, that's of concern here. Let's take a look at some common medical conditions and see where depression enters in.