Shoot The Damn Dog author Sally Brampton

IT has been described as one of the biggest disabilities, diseases or burdens across the globe and is known to affect more than one in six Britons at some point in their lives, although the real figure is undoubtedly much higher.

Although it is more often associated with the lonely, the elderly, the impoverished and those who are struggling with their circumstances, it can also attack the rich, the successful, the famous, or those at the peak of their career with all the trappings of a desirable life.

At its worst, it's fatal, driving sufferers to take their own lives. But despite its power, this is still something people will shy away from discussing.

We're talking about depression, erroneously seen as the illness of the weak, the feeble and the self-pitying.

It's for this reason that one sufferer - a successful Fleet Street journalist, novelist and former editor of top women's magazines - decided to break the code of silence.

In her book, Shoot The Damn Dog, Sally Brampton gives a harrowing account of her descent from a woman who travelled the world comfortably alone, could browbeat the toughest of media moguls and socialised with the celebrity elite, to someone who could barely function, even when anaesthetised by alcohol or prescription drugs, wept uncontrollably, attempted suicide and had spells in psychiatric care.

Today, a bright and attractive 52-year-old, she says: "Most people think of themselves as pretty confident in their life and I certainly did.

"I had many things I counted myself blessed for, yet it happened to me and I don't really know how.

"Everything became meaningless, the things that gave me pleasure no longer did. I couldn't be bothered, couldn't see the point of anything. And how I felt was a big shock to me."

However, being a journalist, when Brampton did manage to shoot the damn dog' - a reference to Winston Churchill's description of depression as a dark canine taking over his mind - she decided to research the illness.

Inspired by 2,000 letters - 50 per cent from men (many of them very high-powered and outwardly successful) - she received from readers after she wrote an article about what she had been through, she decided to write a book to try to help others.

This was largely due to her shock that many of those who got in touch had been too ashamed to tell anyone they knew and were struggling alone - but so desperate for help, they were forced to write to a stranger.

"Depression is much more common than people realise and a lot of people are living in a state of fairly low level misery," she says.

"We live in a culture of achievement, perfectionism and success and the quickest way to unhappiness is comparison. We are all very frightened of how other people see us and that they will think us somehow weak, ugly or stupid if we admit failings, so we battle on.

"But I found that once you start to share how you feel, your vulnerability, other people will help you."

However, low level misery, bad though that is, can be tipped into something more serious and potentially fatal by major stresses in life - what are referred to as major life changes. Some are obvious, like the death of a spouse, child or parent, others less so, like changes at work or a new romance.

In her case it was the break-up of a marriage, redundancy, the death of a friend - troubled star Paula Yates - and the rollercoaster of a new passionate relationship, all within a short space of time.

Brampton says: "Individually you can cope with these things but when it's just one after another it's like getting up off the floor to be hit by a tidal wave, over and over, and eventually you just can't get up at all. It's very confusing and very worrying.

"There are also people with a predisposition to depression, through genetics, and they are a little more fragile, a little more vulnerable to going under."

Under severe duress, parts of the brain can wither, triggering depression. And depression does exactly what it says - depresses everything: memory, ability to think, sleep, eat, and feel pleasure.

Symptoms differ from person to person but there is usually a catastrophic loss of energy, breathing becomes shallow, the voice softens and deepens and movements become more laboured. Some suffer physical pain like stomach ache. For Brampton it was a constriction in the throat.

What the depressive tends to do then, is withdraw, which is probably the worst thing. Brampton likens it to a wounded animal crawling away under a bush to survive or die.

"You see it all the time," she says. "We don't often know how much someone is struggling till there's a last straw' situation and something snaps. And then what people usually say is, Well, she seemed fine'. Many sufferers do, because they think they should be coping.

"But suppressing things and struggling on in silence is the worst possible thing to do. It is this isolation that tips young men to suicide.

"Whereas girls are more likely to confide or show physical signs of distress like weight loss or self harm, which will encourage someone to intervene, boys are more likely to put on a performance that everything is okay, until one day it all gets too much.

"The problem is that we think in this day and age we can take a pill and be better and if that doesn't work we blame ourselves. But the most important thing I'd like people to realise is that depression is not a character flaw or a moral failing. It's an illness and you have to accept you are ill.

"If you had pneumonia you wouldn't punish yourself because you weren't getting better fast enough or you hadn't managed to do the washing up that morning but you do that when you are depressed.

"Sometimes, just doing the washing up was my biggest achievement of the day. And I learned that it was OK to think, This is an illness and I'm doing the best I can'".

Largely through that acceptance and the help of her friends and family, trial and error with therapists, psychiatrists and anti-depressants and attendance at AA, Brampton regained her equilibrium, but it was a battle of years rather than weeks.

She also developed her own self-help plan of communicating and reaching out to others, as well as walking, yoga, acupuncture, eating well and taking essential fatty acids and vitamin B, although she stresses that everyone is different and what works for her may not be right for someone else.

Research has shown that the parts of the brain affected by severe duress can regenerate and that talking - therapy and counselling - and exercise can be as helpful as anti-depressants. The best approach seems to be a combination of all, although each individual will respond differently.

Brampton's own philosophy now is of creating emotional wellness - putting things in place that keep you in balance. When she lists them, it's easy to see how many of us are driving ourselves too hard.

While an expected self-help list might include going to the gym, active social life, cooking wonderful meals at home, hers is less demanding and goal-orientated: daily exercise - even just a short walk - good nutrition, contact with others.

"Exercise is one of the most powerful tools in beating depression," she says. "Walking half an hour a day can tackle depression as effectively as anti-depressant drugs in some people.

"I'm not against anti-depressant drugs, though, and if they work for you that's fantastic."

Now she seems fine, although with a slightly battle-scarred strength. She still struggles occasionally but she has learned from the experience to form closer bonds with others and to be easier on herself.

9:27am Tuesday 26th February 2008

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