ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Available for over a year

Good morning. Over seven million of us are being treated with drugs for depression, one in six adults, and seventy thousand children, and the numbers are rising. When these figures were released recently it was suggested that doctors are dishing out antidepressants too easily. Evidence suggests that while modern drugs work well for severe depression, they are not always as effective for people who are mildly depressed. I had a doctor once who used to say ‘depression is reality’ – and I think she meant by that that some measure of it is almost inescapable; we nearly all have periods of mental pain and self-doubt when we function below par. It could be called ordinary human unhappiness. One reason why we are perhaps less resilient than we used to be is that there is so much hype about living at peak capacity; we talk of ‘optimum performance’ as though we were cars, not people; and of being at the top of our game instead of accepting that the human spirit has seasons of drought as well as plenty. I find myself drawn to the wisdom of the early Christian monks who chose to drop out of a society where the church was becoming rich and successful and follow Jesus and the prophets in seeking God in the desert. They came to know depression as an everyday temptation. They spoke of a particularly persistent visitor from the supernatural world, ‘the noon day demon’, who showed up between the hours of 11 and 3 when the sun was at its peak and deep weariness set in. This was the time when they were most likely to be overwhelmed by sadness and longed for escape. They felt as people so often do today, that they were trapped on a treadmill they couldn’t get off. Today such anxieties often go with a fear that other people are getting more out of life than you are. The gap between expectation and reality is just too great. Looking at last week’s figures a number of medical experts concluded that the best treatment for mild depression was some form of talking therapy. Those ancient monks would have agreed. They were all encouraged to have a mentor experienced in the ways of the desert who could guide them on how to fight their low mood and when it was more appropriate to relax their efforts and take a break. It was crucial to learn how to trace their ups and downs so that they could get some distance on them. Today’s talking therapies use similar techniques, helping people to live in the present moment as an antidote to the swirling fear that accompanies depression. Severe depression is a terrible and life threatening illness. But for many of us experiencing its milder forms it can be an opportunity for a spiritual education.