Its All Downhill from Here

Before I was in third grade I had never heard of depression. I had never even heard of death, really. But there I was, sitting in the front row of a funeral for a man I had never met, and the only explanation I got was, “He was a depressed man, hun.” To a third grader the word ‘depressed’ had no weight for me; I just assumed it meant sad, and maybe he had been so sad he just drifted away. Skip forward about one year: I was in fourth grade now and had just come home from school. I went to my older brother’s room to ask for a snack when I found him…he was curled up in the corner of his room, softly crying. Nothing could’ve been more bizarre to my nine-year old eyes than this sight. I was scared and ran from the room: that was my first glimpse of my brother’s descent into depression. He began to sleep more often and longer, which was passed off as being a teenager. Yet sometimes I would find him curled up and not moving, he claimed he did not have the energy. He became increasingly withdrawn, and hardly spoke to any of us. When he did talk he was dejected and angry. Even his friends began showing up less, until it seemed he no longer wanted friends.
Depression has been recognized as a common disease since ancient times-mythological and religious texts contain descriptions of it. Much of what is known today about symptoms of depression and related disorders was defined by the ancient Greek and Roman healers who coined terms like ‘melancholia’ and ‘mania’ and observed their relationship. Today, approximately 121 million people worldwide are affected by depression, 18.8 million of whom are Americans. Over 35,000 American citizens die by suicide each year, it is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States today. (Joiner, 2010) Approximately 60% of those who commit suicide suffer from major depression. More Americans suffer from depression than from cancer, coronary heart disease, or HIV/AIDS. Depression affects everyone, about 15% of the population will