Scratching the surface of a common problem

Date Published: 18-Jun-2012

One in four of us suffer from depression though I would say it might be a lot higher if you count the lesser degrees of it, which most of us call the blues.

It was the subject of the first of Ray Darcy’s three part documentary on TV3 on Tuesday ‘How to beat depression’ and he and the producers have to be praised for airing something which people are still reluctant to talk about.

Those who took part in the programme were brave because depression or any type of mental illness is still a taboo in this country. I would imagine it was hard enough to get people to take part. I noticed that those who did on Tuesday had come through their depression or had found ways of coping, such as attending Aware or Grow meetings.

It struck me that almost all of the people interviewed who had suffered from depression now helped others through their voluntary activities with self-help groups.

Pádraig Allen, diagnosed as being bi-polar in the late Seventies, and who worked as a civil servant, now talks about his experience to other workers – I imagine many employers are still nervous hiring anyone who would admit to being bi-polar or suffering from depression.

There was a woman who suffered depression which was described as post-natal but was probably because she was overwhelmed with the pressures of parenting only months after her mother died.

There was also a woman who admitted that alcohol featured highly in her depression and sure we all know the drink is a depressant but that doesn’t seem to stop the majority of us from abusing it.

One of the best lines in the programme was that depression was something that people needed to learn to live with, instead of chasing for cures all the time.

I hadn’t realised when I was watching Tuesday’s programme that it was part of a trilogy, which explains why I felt short-changed at the end of it. Much as I welcomed Ray’s take on the matter, I felt he hadn’t really delved into the epidemic, which seems to be hitting our young, mainly males. I now wait in anticipation to the other episodes.

Ray isn’t a bad presenter but I kept thinking the programme might be so much better if someone who suffers from depression did it instead, someone who could really empathise.

Apparently, he admitted on his Today FM radio show the following morning that he had had a bit of depression when he was in college and though he didn’t say that in the TV programme, I got the sense he understood depression and I suppose in this case, that was enough.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.