Let’s look at what is considered one of the biggest obstacles to people getting treatment for depression. Because many people feel there is a stigma to suffering from depression, they are reluctant to admit they get it. They don’t or won’t,  talk about it.

Now if you break your arm, your friends and family will sympathise with you and in my day, they would sign your cast. Tell them you are depressed, and you get comments like, “Snap out of it,” or “go for a walk,” or ”cheer up”.

If your teeth give you trouble you go to a dentist. If you feel ill, you go to your GP. But get depressed and stay in bed because you can’t face seeing anyone; and people think you are pathetic or malingering.

Ricky Gervais, the British comedian, says telling someone who is depressed to, “Perk up and snap out of it, is about as useful as telling someone with cancer, to stop having cancer.”

But we use the word  DEPRESSION very loosely. I mean we talk about a child who can’t have their birthday party outside because it is raining, as being depressed. And yet we use the same word to describe a person’s state of mind just before he puts a revolver in his mouth and pulls the trigger.

Now it used to be thought serious depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. The jury is currently out, with some schools of psychology saying the evidence doesn’t support that position. There may be some chemical imbalance, but it isn’t, according to them, the main cause.

There are several theories as to what causes depression. Perhaps one of them might help explain something I have never really got my head around – and that is, why celebrities commit suicide.

Robin Williams; Kurt Cobain; Anthony Bourdain the celebrity chef – I had a drink with him in New York … but I don’t think that had anything to do with him killing himself; the South African hip-hop artist, known as Riky Rick, hanged himself because of depression; Ernest Hemingway, and just recently the golfer Grayson Murray … the list is endless. They have everything most of us aspire to and strive for. Fame, money, adoring masses, gorgeous partners, amazing talents. So, what was missing in their lives? What could have made things better??

And what about famous people like Bruce Springsteen, Jim Carrey, JK Rowling, Lady Gaga, Prince Harry, and Historical figures like Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln …?

Statistics on depression are overwhelming. Worldwide, about 280 million people suffer from  depression. When I started writing a book I’m doing on depression I kept it to myself at first. I didn’t want to keep explaining why I was writing it. But then, when I told someone what I was working on while we were in a pub; all the people in earshot wanted to share their  story with me. At first, I thought they wanted to ask me about it – no. Instead, they wanted to TELL me their stories.

And virtually everyone I know has something to say about depression; and the number of my friends who are on anti-depressants is astonishing.  And when you hear that SADAG (the South African Depression and Anxiety Group) fields 3 000+ calls a day you realise it is very serious. Even more startling, one in four of those calls is from a potential suicide.

Another staggering statistic is more than 700 000 people around the world commit suicide every year – that’s something like one every 45 seconds. And the No 1 risk factor for suicide, is Depression.

Think about suicide for a minute. If I held your head under water, eventually you would kick, scratch, bite and do anything in your power to get another breath – and it would be instinctive – your body wants to stay alive. BUT a person committing suicide, effectively holds his own head underwater until he drowns. The paradox is – suicide is a permanent,  irreversible solution to what is inevitably a temporary problem.

It goes without saying, depression is real – just as real as a gaping wound. But because you can’t see it, many people don’t treat it as a valid/real condition. Instead, they see it as a character flaw.

Now as far as we know, we only have one life. There may well be an after-life, but that’s a question for another day.

Right now, we  are dealing with the one life we know about. And the intriguing  thing is, never mind outside dangers … wars, pandemics, governments, other-people, crime, animals, in-laws or whatever you fear, the biggest threat to your happiness, is your own brain.