"I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it apears to me."
- Abraham Lincoln wrote in a letter to John Stuart in 1841 when his depression worsened after a breakup with Mary Todd.
今天跟你分享的这段话是美国第16任总统林肯写的，摘自"Forged In Crisis: the power of courageous leadership in turbulent times," by Nancy Koehn.
林肯三十多岁时罹患严重的抑郁症，严重到几度想到过自杀。上面这段话把抑郁症患者最普遍的心理描述得很真实——“我就是世界上最不幸的那个人”。每个抑郁症患者都有这个想法，很多走不出那个心理怪圈最终寻了短见。
在林肯的那个年代，还没有抑郁症这个词，人们普遍把抑郁症患者称为“不开心、忧郁的人”，认为他们无非是 melancholy. 那时候普遍的治疗药物是leeches（水蛭）、mustard rubs（芥末酱）、cold baths（凉水澡），这是19世纪对“不开心的人”的标准疗法。
Reference
https://hbr.org/2020/04/real-leaders-are-forged-in-crisis