If that's depression, then i'm the archbishop of canterbury | thearticle

Not one to be left behind when it comes to bien pensant faddism, the Archbishop of Canterbury just announced that yes, he too has suffered from depression. He had to seek medical help for it

last year. But it’s all right, he adds, because his daughter (who has also struggled with depression) told him that it’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s ‘just life’. Well, it certainly is

nowadays. Never before in the history of the human race, it seems, have so many people suffered from mental health issues. They even have their own annual celebration now: World Mental

Health Day. But here’s a question. Could there be some within this great morass of the depressed – often successful, wealthy people living comfortable lives, if not downright celebrities

like the Archbishop – who are simply tapping into the mood music of the times? Rather like various ladies of the #MeToo rush, so eager all of a sudden to publicise their own experience of

sexual assault, even if it only entailed a lecherous hand on a thigh or a clumsy stolen kiss. In other words, can it have become another fashionable bandwagon? Women who come forward about

their assaults, whether major or minor, and people who declare their battles with depression, likewise whether serious or slight, are now regarded as admirably brave. Far from being a

stigma, these misfortunes have become nothing less than badges of honour. And if Prince Harry can address us all, endlessly, on the subject of mental health problems, surely it has acquired

the ultimate cachet. It has reached the stage where there are demands for the NHS to be allotted as much funding to treat mental illness as it receives for treating physical illnesses – but

even those of us with lousy maths can see that the numbers don’t stack up. Because everyone, from time to time, needs to consult a doctor for some physical ailment. Does everyone require the

services of a mental health professional? I don’t think so. The most shocking aspect of this epidemic of depression is how widespread it is amongst kids. Teenage suicide has become a

high-profile phenomenon, but not, as one might expect, amongst disadvantaged youngsters from abusive families and with poor life chances. The teenagers one mostly reads about who commit

suicide are from comfortable middle-class backgrounds and have supportive parents and promising futures, often college students. It would undoubtedly help matters if young people simply

deleted their accounts on those poisonous social media platforms where they are so easily bullied, humiliated and undermined, but good luck with that particular Pandora’s box. No one would

deny that there are and have always been those with serious mental health problems – for example war veterans with PTSD. And of course there are grave illnesses such as schizophrenia,

bipolar disorder and anorexia. We are much better at diagnosing, understanding and treating these conditions now than ever before. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m referring

to the big amorphous #MeToo depression of the kind trumpeted by the Archbishop, along with a steady stream of showbiz celebs including Gwyneth Paltrow, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Brad Pitt,

Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson (apparently depressed in his early twenties after his brief football career stalled, oh dear)…the list goes on. The rich and famous have only started emoting en

masse about their depression since it has been in vogue to do so. Archbishop Justin Welby always likes to show how down with the kids he is, even though he lives in a palace, has a staff of

seventy and enjoys a global soapbox from which to air his views on any and all subjects. Personally I wish he’d speak out less about his personal woes and more about the persecution of

Christians in Muslim-dominated lands – why, for instance, didn’t he champion the cause of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman fleeing for her life from her benighted home country of Pakistan and

seeking, in vain, refuge here? He has preached loudly enough about our ‘duty’ to admit Syrian refugees. The opprobrium he received from many quarters as a result of this shameful hypocrisy

should indeed give him the blues. I suspect that many of those leaping on to today’s trendy I-too-was-depressed bandwagon are alluding to those difficult, unhappy periods in their lives

which we all endure, when circumstances have brought us low. That is indeed part of life. And it is not to be confused with clinical depression requiring the resources of the medical

establishment. Just as an unwanted hand on a knee is not a sexual assault but a minor annoyance to be swatted away and doesn’t merit bleating about in the media.