Andrew Solomon on depression and hope
By his mid-twenties, Andrew Solomon earned international accolades for his work as a novelist, journalist and historian. At 31 he descended into a major depression. He was helped by a combination of family support, medications and talk therapy.
Andrew Solomon : Depression is an illness of loneliness. And the primary experience is the feeling of being isolated, of being alone, of being cut off from everyone and everything. I knew that the sun was rising and setting, but little of its light reached me….
These experiences of darkness make the light more beautiful, that the pain of being acutely depressed allows you to experience an unbelievable happiness in every day when you aren’t depressed and a sense that each of those days is a gift.
So that’s the real message of hope, is that you can get better.
From his article The experience of darkness and hope .
Related: Depression articles / resources
