Book review: Depression, like maya' is a big lie to let pass

Kalpana was a high-ranking Central government officer in Lutyen's Delhi and so was her husband Mihir. They were blessed with two lovely children despite her mother's death casting a long shadow on her memory map.

Life was good for them until both were transferred out of Delhi. But as their children were in high school, Kalpana "decided to take a sabbatical and stay back in Delhi with them". Then suddenly something happened and she began "to experience copious crying spells". Soon the crying, sometimes yelling, spells got worse …At the same time Kalpana discovered that she was menopausal."

Even more shocking was the case of 28-year-old Gayathri of Chennai who had given birth to a healthy baby boy. Hers was a C-section delivery and Gayathri and her husband Velan, a highly placed government officer, "were very happy" with their first baby. But in an incredibly bizarre turn, a highly distressed Gayathri, hearing that her parents were being "very badly treated" by Velan's parents, told the hospital nurse she did not want to go back home. Even as she was to be discharged on the fourth day after the delivery, an inconsolable Gayathri jumped to her death from the balcony of her fifth floor hospital room!

Does it read strange? The author, Ms Shubhrata Prakash in this beautifully structured straight-from-the-heart book picks up play from such real life episodes to lead the reader in poignant and empathetic manner through the complex but common illness of mind, 'Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)', sans the medical jargon.

A 'proud survivor of MDD herself', this non-fiction book by this IRS officer-cum-poet is a mix of the mildly scholarly and the autobiographical and comes like a warm Mother Courage's hug. Reading it can be both medicine and therapy.

The biggest message to help suffering souls return to a normal, happy life is simply this: "Don't view the world through coloured glasses".  The 'D WORD' can be banished with a little self-reflection/correction, possible in a variety of ways.
 Quoting from the American classic of the early 1900s', 'The Wizard of Oz' written by L. Frank Baum, Shubhrata writes how, "Dorothy, the little girl, Toto, her dog, and her companions- the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Lion reach the Emerald city. There, "the Guardians of the Gates gives them glasses to wear, to shield themselves from the glitter of the city." Once they wear the glasses, everything in the city appears green. "Only towards the end do they discover that the Emerald city is as fake as the Wizard".

As Dorothy and her companions were tricked into wearing green glasses, everything looks green. "Now, just replace the 'green' with the 'black' and there you have the whole story of depression," writes Shubhrata. "The 'fake' Wizard called Depression tricks us into wearing dark, negative-tainted glasses that Dorothy and her companions are tricked into wearing, negative-tainted glasses, which change your thought processes and cause cognitive distortions."

The author in some detail goes over the scientific literature, contributions of thinkers like Sigmund Freud, to recent trends in Neurology, to lucidly explain even to non-technical readers how there are a variety of factors, from genetic predispositions to the social environment, nature to nurture, that contribute to biological alterations in the human brain and effect changes to 'neural pathways' that are responsible for the thought processes and cognitions in our individual brains. Yet, "with an improvement in mood and changes in cognition from therapy and correctional behaviour, these pathways show changes again."

Shubhrata here draws from the fountains of wisdom of all great cultures that can aid this corrective process, supplemented with modern medicines and therapies as each individual case may require. Sitting in the Psychiatrist's chair may only be the beginning of restoring mental health, though extreme violent, psychotic disorders are much harder to cure. But her ringing assurance is there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Thus Shubhrata contends poetically, "And depression lies to you. It tricks you into believing that everything is black or white. It wipes away the greys from the natural colour palette of life. It causes anger, hurt and grief even when there is no real reason for any of it. It puts blinkers on your eyes and makes you refuse to see anything other than the negative things it wants you to see." It thus leads to erosion in 'self-worth' and suicidal tendencies, due to a false veneer on your 'Self'.

One virtue of this book is that this coherent conceptual approach informs the spirit of Shubhrata's entire work, without having to get into technical jargons of psychology or cognitive behavioural therapy, which she says is not favoured in India. In the same breath, the author has also explained all the MDD concepts and nuances.   

From simple awareness meditation of the Chinese, vignettes from Zen Buddhism, modern therapeutic techniques including chemotherapy to alternative and complementary medicinal systems including Indian systems like 'Ayurveda', she unravels the range of healing choices.  There is 'yea-saying' to even faith healers if it can help in cure.

However, the author cautions: "Try faith healers if you must. Something may just work for you. .... But at no stage should you stop your medication and therapy because a faith-healer asked you to..." It is fine if a faith-healer can help affected people put their troubled past life into a perspective for fresh, wholesome living. But "Do not become indebted financially in order to perform expensive rituals. They are not so worth it."  

Ultimately, the golden rule is not to be 'depressed' about the 'D Word'. Cure for this form of mental ailment, whether it comes from job loss, financial ruin, sexual abuse, an accident, shoot-out, other anxieties/insecurity, or even trial by the press and trolling in social media that could destroy one's fair name in a minute, as the author refers to, is to get over the layers of illusion (read 'Maya' if you so like), through a process of self-discovery that points to an underlying universal love in human bondage.

The active realisation in useful work that the 'Self' includes the 'Other', takes away the 'Maya' of alienation and the pain passes. The greatest happiness, as Bertrand Russell said, is to be one with the stream of life. Shubhrata's book leaves none in doubt about its truth.