The following is an extract from Darkness Visible by the writer William Styron. He wrote a memoir of a major depressive episode which has resonance for many of my clients who suffer long-term depressive illness.

 “When I was first aware that I had been laid low by the disease, I felt a need, among other things, to register a strong protest against the word “depression”. Depression, most people know, used to be termed “melancholia”, a word which appears in English as early as 1303 and crops up more than once in Chaucer, who in his usage seemed to be aware of its pathological nuances.

“Melancholia” would still appear to be a far more apt and evocative word for the blacker forms of the disorder, but was usurped by a noun with a bland tonality and lacking any magisterial presence, used indifferently to describe an economic decline or a rut in the ground, a true wimp of a word for such a major illness…for over seventy-five years the word has slithered innocuously through the language like a slug, leaving little trace of its intrinsic malevolence and preventing, by its very insipidity, a general awareness of the horrible intensity of the disease when out of control”.

 I like this piece because it sums up why many people fail to understand that depression is a serious illness. It’s so much more than the word suggests. In my work a constant theme is the fact that many people just don’t get what depressive illness is about. When people moan and say “I’m depressed, I can’t afford to buy a really nice handbag I’ve seen”, they really denigrate the meaning of the word. When a true sufferer of depression says they are depressed people then fail to appreciate just how debilitating it is. Wake up world! People who are depressed sometimes kill themselves – that’s how bad it feels! I deal with clients who are unable to control their emotions. Who rock back and forward in their chair. Who cannot answer a ‘phone or go outside. Depression is not about having a bad day. It is an illness. Call it “broken mind”. Just because you cannot see it does not mean it isn’t real… I struggle on a daily basis to persuade employers that depression is a serious disease and that it deserves to be acknowledged. That their employee is not skiving or making it up. Sufferers need to be treated with kindness, compassion and respect, not treated like they have just grown a second head.  There are some great organisations like Mind valiantly trying to improve the profile of mental illness but there is still an awful lot of ignorance. Take for example Janet Street Porter calling depression the new black. It is ignorance like this that keeps us in the Middle Ages when it comes to mental health. We’ve made great leaps as a society in terms of tolerance and personal freedoms but we have definitely not matched this progress in the arena of depression.

Karen Jackson