Too many people have the mistaken impression that depression is nothing more than something inside your head that you can just snap your fingers and get rid of.

It's neanderthaler!

Nothing can be further from the truth.

Recently Matt Ryan, host of Saturday Night Jersey ‘80s did a piece
on his own battles with depression.

It’s must reading, especially if your depression has gotten to the point where you’ve contemplated suicide.

Does it help you to know that even if you appear to have the world by the “you-know-whats”…you can still be in the grips of a depressive illness.
Consider this…

The Boss has been battling a bad case of the blues.

Bruce Springsteen has revealed he’s been seeing a shrink since 1982, when depression made him suicidal while he was on the cusp of superstardom.

But the 62-year-old “Born to Run” singer says his demons have been a blessing in disguise and that his epic live performances are the product of “pure fear and self-loathing and self-hatred.”

Springsteen’s late father also grappled with an isolating depression. The magazine says he was probably bipolar and often refused to take his medication.

“My dad was very nonverbal — you couldn’t really have a conversation with him,” Springsteen said.

“My parents’ struggles, it’s the subject of my life,” he said. “It’s the thing that eats at me and always will. My life took a very different course, but my life is an anomaly. Those wounds stay with you, and you turn them into a language and a purpose.”

Even as his success grew, The Boss worried he would turn out like his dad, and fear of mental illness kept him from the self-destructive behavior that has ruined so many other musicians.

By 1982, there was a dark cloud over Springsteen.

“He was feeling suicidal,” said his biographer, Dave Marsh. “The depression wasn’t shocking, per se. He was on a rocket ride, from nothing to something, and now you are getting your a-- kissed day and night. You might start to have some inner conflicts about your real self-worth.”

He started seeing a psychotherapist and has been in analysis ever since. His wife and bandmate, Patti Scialfa, said therapy allowed her “isolationist” husband to succeed at forging a family life.

“He was able to look at himself and battle it out,” the mother of three said.

Moral of the story…he recognized what it was and sought treatment for it.

Many don’t, and that’s the pity.

The stigma is so pervasive about mental illness, that many choose to do nothing instead of battling it, much the same way you’d battle cancer or any other life threatening illness.

Knowing that Bruce has suffered from depression and still seeks the treatment of a therapist should make you feel better in the sense that depression is something that affects us all, and knows no social standing.

Be strong…don’t worry about what others think…treat it!

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