A lot of progress has been made recently toward a greater understanding of Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), its hazards, its treatments. I've heard a very sensible Doctor speak on the subject on the radio recently, Dr. Peter Kramer. He has authored two books: "Listening to Prozac" and quite recently, "Against Depression". In the first book, which I'm partially through, he goes through the history of Prozac and anti-depressive medication, and case studies of people who he has treated both with and without drugs. More recently, his later book, which I haven't read but I've heard him describe it, goes into the more recent findings of Depression as a debilitating disease which needs to be addressed and treated. He argues that Depression gets worse with age, decreases the satisfaction we get out of life, and potentially damages our brains. His parable argument is: "Why do we tell people that Depression is character building, that we should tough it out. If they have cancer we don't withhold treatment, we don't tell people how fighting it out alone will build character."

It is a common affliction which we are still in the dark ages about, but treatments these days are likely doing more good than harm.