downer

So depression is very hard to write about in a way that others want to read.

"Oooh, I feel like spending the whole week in bed. In fact scratch that whole 'life' thing, I'd really like that to end in the near future but I don't have the energy to do anything about it right now. Hmmm, maybe I'll cry for a bit."

It's hardly up there fun-wise is it? And yet it's also distressingly common. In any one month, about 4% of Australians (that's about 800,000 people) will suffer from a depressive episode. And I'm guessing that thise figures are similar across the developed world.

At its worst, depression is like being hollowed out with a spoon. All the ice cream in the tub of self is gone, there's just the packaging left. And the packaging is cardboard - thin, soggy & weak. It is like being already dead - which is presumably why depression leaves people feeling suicidal. Ending your existence does not seem like such a big leap, such an unthinkable act. It just feels like finishing the job. The pain is like phantom limb pain, except that this is phantom self pain. "You" have been amputated - what do you do next in the grieving process?

For some people, this is all they have. For many of us, these feelings come and go. Sometimes we just get profound lethargy. We've been left stuck in neutral. Cut adrift. No drive. Frustrating yes, but not fatal.

It's not cancer but it can kill. All of us hit a blue note.

Take a moment to hear that echo in others.