Standing In My Own Shadow by Barry Daniels - HTML preview

     Interlude: They got out of bed:

I am Depressive. I find it hard to get out of bed in the morning.  This is not the ‘Damn-the-alarm-clock-it-can’t-be-six-o’clock-already’ which most people feel, at least occasionally. This is an ‘I-couldn’t-get-out-of-bed-even-if-the-house-was-on-fire-and-the-bedsheets-had-just-started-smouldering.’  I was often late for school and I have been more often late for work than on time. My Father told me that I’d never hold down a job because I’d be fired for lateness after the first month – and he came closer to the truth than I like to think about.

Perhaps you are depressive, too, and have trouble getting out of bed to get your day started.  But before you and I get too maudlin about the ‘poor us’ thing I’d like you to look over a list of names I found on the Internet.  There are many such lists, but I think this Wikipedia list is the most complete.  I’m sure you’ll recognise quite a few of them.  They were all Depressive, too, like us, but they managed to drag themselves out of bed; and thank God they did.  The world would be a much sadder and less interesting place if they’d said “I’m depressive, and nobody expects me to be able to achieve anything, so I think I’ll just stay in bed.”

(Thanks to Wikipedia for this list; for more info on this – or on just about anything – go to http://www.wikipedia.org )

List of people with major depressive disorder

 • John Adams, 2nd President of the United States

• Caroline Aherne, British comedienne]

•  Alan Alda, American actor and author

• Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut,

• Woody Allen, American film director and comedian

• Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer

• Hideaki Anno, Japanese animator and film director

• Malcolm Arnold, British composer

• Isaac Asimov, American author and professor

• Julian Assange, Australian publisher and editor (WikiLeaks)

• Alec Baldwin, American actor

• Charles Baudelaire, French poet

• Amanda Beard, American Olympic Gold Medalist

• Ingmar Bergman, Swedish film director

• Halle Berry, American actress.

• William Blake, British poet and painter

• David Bohm, British quantum physicist

• Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway

• Jon Bon Jovi, American rock singer and songwriter

• Lorraine Bracco, American actress

• Art Buchwald, humorist

• Barbara Bush First Lady of the United States 1989–93

• Truman Capote, American writer

• Drew Carey, American comedian and actor

• Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian

• Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter

• Johnny Carson, American television presenter.

• Helena Bonham Carter, British actress

• Dick Cavett, American talk show host

• Raymond Chandler, writer of detective fiction

• Ray Charles, African-American singer

• Agatha Christie, English crime writer

• Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister

• Eric Clapton, singer

• Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer-songwriter

• Stan Collymore, British footballer

• Joseph Conrad, Polish writer

• Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States.

• Sheryl Crow, American singer-songwriter

• Roméo Dallaire, Canadian general, senator and humanitarian

• Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian and actor

• Charles Darwin, British 

• Edgar Degas, French painter

• Ellen DeGeneres, American comedian and talk show host

• John Denver, American musician

• Johnny Depp, American Actor

• Diana, Princess of Wales

• Charles Dickens, British writer

• Emily Dickinson, American poet

• Kirsten Dunst, American-German actress

• Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, poet and artist

• Blake Edwards American film director and producer

• Eminem, American rapper

• William Faulkner, American author

• Harrison Ford, American actor

• Michel Foucault, French philosopher

• Peter Gabriel, British singer and band member of Genesis

• Paul Gauguin, French painter

• Paul Getty, British philanthropist

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt, American actor

• Francisco de Goya, Spanish painter

• Graham Greene, British writer

• Tony Hancock, English actor and comedian

• Elizabeth Hartman, American actress

• Anne Hathaway, American actress

• Ernest Hemingway, American writer

• Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-British actress

• Sir Anthony Hopkins, British actor

• Frankie Howard OBE, British comedian

• Sir Julian Huxley, British biologist, author and administrator

• Janet Jackson, American singer

• Henry James, British writer

• William James, American philosopher and 

• Billy Joel, American musician

• Samuel Johnson, British biographer, essayist and poet

• Daniel Johnston, American musician

• Angelina Jolie, American actress

• Franz Kafka, Czech writer

• John Keats, British poet

• Stephen King, American author

• Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German painter

• Alan Ladd, American actor

• John Lennon, MBE, British singer-songwriter

• David Letterman, American comedian and TV presenter

• Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and politician,

• Heather Locklear, American actress

• Courtney Love, American singer and actress

• Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer

• Henri Matisse, French painter

• Guy de Maupassant, French writer

• Herman Melville, American writer

• Michelangelo, Italian painter and sculptor

• Spike Milligan, Irish comedian and writer

• Kylie Minogue, Australian singer

• Marilyn Monroe, American actress and sex symbol

• Alanis Morissette, Canadian musician and songwriter

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer

• Isaac Newton, British Scientist

• Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

• Eugene O'Neill, American playwright

• Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist

• Marie Osmond, American musician

• Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress

• Dolly Parton, American country singer and actress

• Brad Pitt, American actor

• Sylvia Plath, American writer

• Edgar Allan Poe, American poet and writer

• Jackson Pollock, American painter

• Charley Pride, American country music singer

• Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer and pianist

• Charlotte Rampling, English actress

• Anne Rice, American writer

• Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet

• John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist

• J. K. Rowling, British writer

• Winona Ryder, American actress

• J. D. Salinger, American author

• Robert Schumann, German composer

• Brooke Shields, American actress

• Britney Spears, American pop singer

• Rick Springfield, American singer-songwriter

• Bruce Springsteen, American singer-songwriter

• Rod Steiger, American actor

• Amy Tan, American writer

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer

• Emma Thompson, British actress and screenwriter

• Uma Thurman, American actress

• Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer

• Mark Twain, American writer

• Mike Tyson, African-American boxer

• Vincent van Gogh – Dutch artist

• Kurt Vonnegut – American author

• Mike Wallace, American journalist

• Evelyn Waugh, British novelist and journalist

• Walt Whitman, American poet

• Oscar Wilde, British-Irish playwright, poet, lecturer,

• Robin Williams, American comedian and actor

• Tennessee Williams, American playwright

• Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host

• Reese Witherspoon, American actress and producer

• Virginia Woolf, British novelist

• Boris Yeltsin, first President of Russia