Therese Borchard at Beyond Blue passes along an interesting article about British women writing about their experiences with depression.

The writers in question seem to be a little older than this blog’s target audience, but my generation can likely relate to their feelings, described by Stephanie Merritt:

Common to all our stories is the refrain that we felt fraudulent in being depressed, that we were aware how little we had to complain about, that we had, as (Sally) Brampton has written, ‘no reason to be sad’. Coupled with this was the feeling that we had to keep up appearances, that we mustn’t let people down.

What surprised me was the statistics at the end, particularly this one:

300,000: Number of under-35s claiming incapacity benefit because of ‘mental and behavioural disorders’

This article serves as a good reminder that mental illness doesn’t discriminate by nationality — and that writing and other forms of art can help some people deal with their pain.