“Like the Gay, ‘Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name,’ Depression Is Now Shouting!”


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The title of this blog is in quotes since it derives from the second part of a series Dick Cavett published in the New York Times. Part 2 appeared on July 11, 2008.

The link is highly recommended.

Comments received on part 1, Cavett notes, approached 500 in number, an extraordinary volume of mail and e-messages. A fraction of these reactions is included in the link. All are fascinating.

A few names are judiciously dropped, mostly to chronicle Cavett’s own “black dog”: Tennessee Williams, Sir Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando. The third-named proves to Cavett that on bad days he (Cavett) was actually doing “ten times better” than he felt. To prove this, Brando insists Cavett watch a tape of a show he hosted, on a particularly down day. (The guest was Sir Laurence.) Cavett is stunned to see how well he performed: Brando credits a kind of mental “automatic pilot.”

Aren’t we all on this form of “auto pilot” sometimes?

Depression is the number-one emotional concern in the United States. (Read the AMHF interview with Alexandra Styron.)

Depression is at a crisis level.

Depression is a leading cause of substance abuse.

At its most unbearable, depression only ends in suicide.

AMHF is committed to a different ending, an ending of the suffering and denial; AMHF is dedicated to enlightened advocacy, and what Erich Fromm characterizes as a “sane society”; to understanding stress-causes and triggers via research, to making depression in its many manifestations and degrees a subject that is no longer stigmatized, so that its sufferers can shout: “Look this way. Please! Recognize my warning signs. I need and deserve professional help!”


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