Lorraine Bracco plays psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi on “The Sopranos.” By the time she landed the role of Melfi, whose treatment of mob boss Tony Soprano forms the show's psychological and moral backbone, Bracco was grappling with deep depression. Shortly after that, she sought professional counseling and was prescribed antidepressants. Actually, it took portraying Melfi.. for Bracco to fully realize her darkened mood. "After decades of such hardships and working hard and praying to catch a break and then the break comes, I had to ask myself, 'Why am I not jumping for joy?' " said Bracco. "I realized I was going on, living life, but without any joy."

Her bout with depression made Bracco determined to help others. Her message — "If I can do it, you can do it too" — motivated what turned out to be a painful writing process [of her memoir]. "People are suffering, and it breaks my heart. I think a lot of people are depressed, and they don't know it. It's like a low-grade fever. We've been told to buck up and just do it, and sometimes that's not possible." Her memoir, in which each chapter opens with a sage Melfi quote, is On the Couch. [From Doctor, heal thyself. By Martin Miller, Los Angeles Times June 12, 2006]

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I'm so tired but I can't sleep Standin' on the edge of something much too deep It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard > lyrics from "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan ~ ~ ~ Sarah McLachlan says she suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter India. "It's weird because I was so happy...

I was so ecstatic that I had this baby and I was instantly and madly in love yet it was incredibly hard and painful at times...because when this baby cries and cries and cries there's nothing you can do," the singer told CBC's Closeup with Ralph Benmergui [broadcast in 2004]. "It just rips your heart out." She says she embraced the "flip side" of her happiness even though she was a "basketcase." "If you're going to feel that height of happiness you're going to feel the depth of darkness," she said in the interview to promote her current album Afterglow, her first in six years. ctv.ca news story

I'm glad to be alive, because I know what it's like not to want to be here... I had this deep feeling inside me [when I was young], like an energy, that if I wanted to I could do incredible things. ... Then lots of things in life smash you about, and you can lose that energy, but even when I was really down I never lost it.

So now I've come out of it all, and that's when I really started having fun... if you can have fun the way I have when I'm nearly 60, that's quite interesting. If you don't worry about getting wrinkled and all that, and you just allow yourself to feel good, then maybe it's because your time has come. Charlotte Rampling .. [The Independent (UK) independent.co.uk 26 March 2005] > related page:..,maturity

Living a life free of Prozac, drugs and alcohol has helped comedian Jim Carrey deal with depression, he told the CBS program "60 Minutes." In an interview [Nov 21 2004], Carrey said he took Prozac for a long time but it didn't cure his depression. "I had to get off at a certain point because I realized that... everything is just OK," Carrey said. "There are peaks, there are valleys, but they're all kind of carved and smoothed out... It feels like a low level of despair you live in where you're not getting any answers but you're living OK and you can smile at the office."

Carrey said he is living without the perks from drugs and alcohol. "I rarely drink coffee. I am very serious about no alcohol, no drugs," he said. "Life is too beautiful."  > Assoc Press Nov 19 2004 / photo from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) [dvd]

What they can't do is magically transform most personalities (despite the optimistic excesses of some drug advocates), teach vital coping and problem-solving skills, resolve associated personal and interpersonal issues, or erect strong protection against the recurrence of episodes.

The clinical research evidence is perfectly clear on this point: psychotherapy that emphasizes skill-building and problem resolution is not only desirable but necessary.

In Bill Breen's article, The 6 Myths of Creativity, he interviews Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School.

The Nature of Human Vitality

Like many millions of people, I have experienced severe, clinical depression. And I think that "depression" is one of the most misleading and inadequate words in our vocabulary. 

When I try to describe the experience, I find myself grasping to say what it is not. Depression is not essentially about being sad, or down, or blue, though these may be symptoms.

In the illuminating language of Andrew Solomon in this week's program, the opposite of depression is not happiness -- it is "human vitality." 

It can have purely physiological origins. It may be triggered by old sadnesses grown unbearable or anger turned inward, as one saying goes. But it becomes a way of being in, and moving through, the world.

Ignatius Loyola, the 16th century founder of the Jesuit order, spoke of "desolations" -- a better word than depression, in my mind -- that "lead one toward lack of faith and leave one without hope and without love. One is completely listless, tepid, and unhappy, and feels separated from our Creator and Lord." 

After depression there is a particular solace in the voices of others.. who've been marked by this disease and lived to reflect on its contours. 

When I finally began to emerge, I found a kind of comfort in the scriptural psalms of lament and imprecation -- mourning prayers, cursing prayers. 

Suddenly the "pit" of which the psalmist so often writes was real to me. I also returned to the poetry of Rilke, who like many great thinkers and creators, had an intimacy with "darkness."

Shawn Colvin, who has battled major depressive disorder for much of her life, is sharing her experience with others through a national education campaign, Beyond the Music: Shawn Colvin Speaks Out About Depression, sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline... 

Colvin has suffered from major depressive disorder on and off for more than 20 years. "During the worst times, I shut the world out, refusing to get out of bed. Even the smallest tasks were overwhelming," she said. ///

"Since seeking help and getting appropriate treatment for my depression, I have felt more engaged with and closer to family and friends, and have been able to fully capture my creativity."

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When drinking was no longer enough to numb the pain of her depression, Shawn Colvin says she started starving herself. "I was anorexic for a year. I felt powerful and in control and pretty. I think it's another response to some sort of illness that has to do with depression and obsession..." ///

Already depressed before she got pregnant, Shawn says she was hit with postpartum depression. 

"Initially it was really bad," says Shawn. "Part of the way I've dealt with my depressions in the past is I've had the ability, if necessary, to just check out. There have been times when I've not shown up at work … and I knew it was going to be a big deal for me to commit to this baby, to have a baby, but I thought it was the best challenge I could offer to myself and I really could rise to it. And I feel I have."

The years were uneven -- terrifying, tumultuous, but often wonderful -- and it was only after joining the faculty of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry, when I went ravingly manic, that I was forced into treatment.

depression and intelligence

According to a forthcoming book on depression by Dr. James N. Herndon, the answer to all of these questions is yes.

"There's been a fundamental lack of understanding of what the feeling of depression actually means," says Dr. Herndon, with the Phoenix-based research firm, Vallis Solaris, Inc.

"In treating depression, the primary objective is to eliminate the depressed feeling. This is typically achieved with one of the many anti-depressant drugs. But the depressed mood is simply covered-up, not cured."

Dr. Herndon supervised one of the largest privately funded research studies on depression. "The results have caused me to reevaluate a lot of my assumptions about depression," he states. ...

"There seems to be a widespread belief that depressed persons are weak and ineffective. Actually, it appears that the more intelligent you are, the more you tend to create complex, negative scenarios in your mind. 

"This can ultimately trigger what seems to be a kind of instinctive 'submission response' in the brain. We feel under attack, and are told by our brain to submit to the negative thoughts. It's actually a survival mechanism. But we interpret this as depression."

Results of the study suggest that our traditional concept of depression may be flawed. 

"What we call depression might be better characterized as a submissive illness. This has a host of implications for the treatment of depression," Dr. Herndon believes, "especially since our research seems to show that an instinctive 'dominance response' is also active in each of us. 

It's sort of like a built-in 'dark' side and 'light' side, each battling for supremacy. Our tests of a depression therapy based on utilizing our more 'dominant' instincts have been very encouraging." 
 

Surprisingly, "Star Wars" played a role in Dr. Herndon's research results. "Our data revealed that 'Star Wars' fans had unexpectedly high rates of depression. The 'Star Wars' mythos apparently tends to heighten conditions of stress and disappointment, fueling an increased sense of vulnerability."

"But at least 'Star Wars' fans who are depressed can claim significantly above average intelligence," Dr. Herndon quips.     [Dr. Herndon is a member of the American Psychological Association.