Depression/ Bipolar disorder

Depression: Symptoms and Treatment In western Nigeria, an energetic Yoruba woman gradually withdraws from village life, ceases tending her garden, and – to the dismay of her family and neighbors – spends her days staring at the wall of her hut. In Osaka Japan, a conscientious college student suffers weeks of anxiety and shame, convinced he will fail an upcoming examination, and prepares to disembowel himself. In Southern California, a hard-driving sales manager repeatedly cancels important appointments, …

…book entitled The Secret Strength of Depression, noted that many people rebound from depression better able to cope, often reaching new levels of creativity. The illness, he wrote, enables a person to examine, the relinquish, old assumptions that block a fresh appraisal of the possibilities in life. "to experience acute depression," Flach concluded, "is an opportunity for a person not just to learn more about himself, but to become more whole than he was" (Campbell 87).