A strange title – well perhaps – but I’m hoping that those people who suffer from depression, will understand what I mean and forgive me for putting it that way.

Like so many people I was shocked when I heard about the tragic death of Robin Williams. The man who made the whole world laugh had no answer for the demons that lurked in the shadows by his side. To be compelled to reject the very essence of your being, be unable to see even a glimmer of light at the far end of the tunnel is something many of us will never understand.  

I should say right at the outset that I have never suffered from depression and I am merely a bystander trying to understand something that; if I’m brutally honest, I have never given much thought to.  Depression isn’t something that is easy to spot, people who suffer look no different from every other person we meet in life, there are no telltale signs to give us a clue of their suffering. Make no mistake here they really do suffer, even if we cannot see it. Some people call depression the ‘Big Black Dog’ that once a part of your life faithfully follows you for the rest of your days, through good days and bad, never completely leaving your side.

Depression is a subject that society as a whole is not comfortable with. The mind, along with the heart and soul, are things we just take for granted, always working away quietly in the background. They are not showy in their expertise simply doing what they need to do, unsung heroes without the need for any input from us.  If we look at it scientifically there is a large portion of our mind that we have no control over, we do not consciously ask our heart and lungs to work nor do we not tell our immune system to go fight the invading virus.  Let’s face it there is a very large part our mind that we simply do not understand and when that breaks down it frightens us, how do you fix something that you cannot see or touch – in other words it’s an illness that is not a spectator sport, you simply cannot pin it down, examine it and take it apart to try and fix it.

It seems to me that depression must be like slowly drowning in a shallow pool of black water, you know that there are people around you who may be able to help but somehow you cannot reach beyond that darkness, unable to make that short journey back up to the light, desperately wanting to reach out but not knowing how.

These rambling will not change the world but they are helping me to change the way that I think, to remind me that I should every now and then, look around and down and see if there is somebody who needs a helping hand.