Briandencan: My dad had a almost intolerably dangeorus case of "bipolar", his manic phases were dangerous for everyone around, but his depressive stages took him into the dark depths, and that aspect -- the despairing, hopelessness, constant debilating anxiety is something one of my brothers has experienced most days of the year for over 25 years. Marianne Williamson said something I found very revealing about depression -- that all the chemical pharmacopia of the recent era has made it worse, not better, because, generations ago depression was considered a normal state of being too, and one that can be productive, hard to produce in it I know, but too rise out the depths with some purposeful activity has greated great works and people. For example: Abraham Lincoln.