Probably the best book I’ve read this year is Andrew Solomon’s The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, which begins as a look at the New Yorker’s writer’s horrifying and almost inexplicable struggles with depression after publishing a novel. The book becomes a years-long exploration into all aspects of the disease: medical, historical, psychological, personal, cultural. It’s a tour de force, and a great book. My readers tend to be people unafraid of seriousness, to their credit, and in my experience, serious people tend to be people vulnerable to and often familiar with depression, which is not sadness, but something far more deeply rooted, and far more frightening.
But I’ll stop blathering now and recommend a column in todays NY Times by Solomon called Our Great Depression, which offers a great idea to help. Solomon begins by pointing out that depression is the most common cause of disability worldwide, and that suicide is the 11th most common cause of death in the U.S. We must take this disease more seriously, without fear or shame. A model exists:
We need a network of depression centers, much like the cancer centers established in the 1970s.
Through the National Cancer Institute, federal funds were dispersed to interdisciplinary centers like Memorial-Sloan Kettering in New York and M.D. Anderson in Houston. The idea was to make sure that 80 percent of the American population lived within 200 miles of such a center.
As this network of institutions took root, the quality of cancer treatment advanced dramatically. The centers brought researchers and clinicians under one roof, ensuring that basic science was applied to achieve medical results. Scientists communicated both within and between centers, so that everyone could make use of everyone else’s work to accelerate progress.
The amazing thing about depression is that although it can leave physical scars in the brain, the disease nonetheless can be overcome, and we’re starting to understand exactly how. It’s time we as a people stopped pretending that a disease this prevalent and this serious is a guilty secret.
Kit Stolz 
I hope the “depression centers” have a better track record than the “cancer centers.” Neither condition really strikes me as healable, only ameliorated through drugs and radical (radiation) sandblasting.
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Well, that’s a darn good point.
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Recently my son was recovering for 2 suicide attemts and the Mental Health system in our area had only short term (7 day) programs.
The only place for him to go was to a State Mental hospital. It helped some, but little. He did not qualify for the treatment centers because he didn’t use drugs or abuse alcohol. Thank goodness he had me, recovering alcoholic, as I had some idea of what he needed to start recovering from his depression. I also have depression and have fought finding the “right meds” and continued thepary to function in a “normal” society.
Thanks
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