“GREY SKIES ARE GONNA CLEAR UP, PUT ON A HAPPY FACE”
Charles Strouse
How many of you have heard the expression ‘down in the dumps’? It’s an old-fashioned saying that means you’re feeling a bit miserable. We’ve all experienced this for one reason or another and we can’t specify why – you’ve just ‘got the blues’, or ‘having an off day’, ‘in the Doldrums’, ‘down in the mouth’, ‘not your cheery self’, ‘below par’, ‘looking like a wet weekend’. Oftentimes there might be something not going quite right in your life but it’s non-specific, you’ve just lost enthusiasm temporarily. At other times, it’s easy to pinpoint the cause – failing an exam, losing your wallet, having a disagreement with a friend or family member. Going up the scale, the financial loss could be more considerable than a lost or stolen purse – shares that have taken a tumble, an interest hike that raises your mortgage payment, an unexpected household disaster that will cost a small fortune to repair. And top of the scale would be the death of a loved one, close friend or even a beloved pet. From that sort of loss, there is no magic wand to quick fix – only time will help to heal and often it only lessens the hurt, which never really goes away.
All of the above are causes of unhappiness in your life, some tangible, others less so but they are all phases that most peoples lives go through at one time or another. Going back to our clichés, ‘life is not a bed of roses’, ‘into every life a little rain must fall’, ‘you’ve been thrown a curveball’.
All of the above happen to most and the resulting feeling of sadness or ennui is a normal and natural part of the human condition. However they are all, to a greater or lesser extent, temporary. Generally speaking, the mood will lift, ‘the future look a bit brighter’, ‘the sun will come out again’ and you’ll once more ‘be in the pink’.
Interesting how many of these idioms refer to the weather or to colours – clouds and rain symbolise a bad patch, sunny skies equate to happiness. Blue, black and grey are the colours of sadness, pastel shades are for happiness.
However, none of the above refer to clinical depression. I have written many articles on this subject and it’s important to differentiate between the two. Depression is a very real mental disorder that has an overwhelming effect on many parts of a person’s life. It can seemingly occur in people of any gender or age and alters behaviours, attitudes and lifestyles. Symptoms can include feelings of discouragement, sadness, hopelessness, lack of motivation and a loss of interest in activities that the sufferer once found enjoyable. In severe cases, it induces suicidal thoughts. The medical term for this condition is that of a major depressive disorder (MDD).
Medical News Today lists the most common symptoms of MDD as ‘a daily depressed mood that lasts for most of the day, nearly every day, with noticeable signs of hopelessness and sadness, a loss of interest in normal activities for an extended amount of time, significant and unintentional weight loss or gain, insomnia, sleeplessness, or increased amounts of sleep that affect normal schedules, tiredness and low energy, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt on a daily basis, inability to concentrate or make decisions and recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, or suicide attempts or plans’.
Famous sufferers of severe depression include such luminaries as two former US Presidents, Abraham Lincoln who suffered throughout his life, his flaw partner William Herndon remarking that ‘His melancholy dropped from him as he walked’, and John Quincy Adams whose diaries revealed a man plagued by a lifelong struggle with depression; also removed scientist Sir Isaac Newton whose notebooks are filled with descriptions of personal anxiety, suicidal thoughts, low self-esteem and bouts of fear. Closer in time we have Winston Churchill who referred to his ‘Black Dog’ when the dark mood descended, British comedian Stephen Fry who disparages the PC terminology of ‘bi-polar disorder’, stating that the old description of manic-depressive’ far better sums up his experiences, CBS News Anchor Mike Wallace who attempted suicide after being sued for libel and was in therapy for the rest of his life and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling who tells of having her first bout of depression in the early ‘90s whilst writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
What all of these people have in common is that viewed from outside, none of them appear to have any reason for anxiety and hopelessness. They were and are all hugely successful in their individual fields – talented, intelligent and without obvious money or health concerns: But just as cancer is often referred to as ‘the silent killer’, MDD is ‘the subversive killer’. Most sufferers will not die of it but because of it – choosing to end their internal turmoil by taking their own lives whilst many more simply try to grin and bear it and tear themselves up in the attempt.
Of course this transposes into the workplace and whilst it’s easy to be medically signed-off with a raging fever or a broken leg, any mental disorder is harder to diagnose and can still carry a stigma. True, some organisations are now taking a more enlightened view of mental conditions but by no means all.
Bottom line, if you or someone you know is ‘feeling blue’ it’s not necessarily clinical depression but if that feeling has persisted or recurs frequently, it may be time to seek professional help. It’s out there, it’s confidential and it could be a life-saver.
