Give more respect to depression sufferers

Sir — I wish to reply in the strongest terms to Dermot Cooke’s letter (‘Depression is a thought process’, Sunday Independent, January 8).

I agree with him in saying that depression is not a physical entity, that’s true, and I would say universally accepted as such. He merrily states, however, that self-help is the cure for depression and that he was able to cure himself “many moons ago’’. I can assure Mr Cooke that no one escapes from depression without some form of outside, professional help. I wish to add that I am not a medical person myself, but I suffered a bout of depression in early 2015 and it was the most frightening experience in my life. Completely devoid of energy, I had to summon all my mental and psychological will to get out of my bedroom and up to my GP, as a matter of urgency.

I was saved by my GP’s empathy in listening to me and with the care and attention of my counsellor that same afternoon. I had suffered a mental breakdown in London in 1992, caught up in a lonely city, and though my father brought me home, I was never able to speak about the traumatic experience or indeed was never encouraged by anyone to “get the hurt out of my system’’. Consequently, I suffered a bout of depression that came from nowhere and could have derailed me.

Please Mr Cooke, show a modicum of respect in the future for the thousands of people with depression in this country, possibly one in three people, who are fighting to get well and need our love and sympathy to help them get better, and understand themselves better. I will never judge a person with depression. In the first place, they should not be judged. It is a most serious illness, and must not be treated in the contemptible way Mr Cooke sees fit. David Whelan, Galway