Page 24 - NAMAH-Apr-2016

Namah Vol. 25, Issue 1, 24th April 2017

sunshine, the source of joy and energy! This is disease. Indeed there is a range of such diseases.
why Light therapy is often useful in seasonal The inadequate management of physical pain
affective disorders where depression occurs is one of the important reasons why some
at certain times of the year, notably in winter. subjects opt for voluntary euthanasia. There
are conditions like carcinoma of the pancreas
Returning to Ray’s analogy, it can be argued that can present with a dramatic picture
that mood fluctuations may not be linked of depression. Electrolyte imbalances can
linearly every time with Nature’s movements cause depression which can be corrected
and subjects can display moods, helplessly by restoring the balance. There are drugs
incongruent or abjectly incompatible with that can precipitate severe depression. Even
the expressions in nature. Ray himself made paradoxically, depression can occur as an
a later film, Ashani Sanket, ‘Distant Thunder’, idiosyncratic response to sedatives.
1973 where he did the opposite of what he
attempted in Kanchenjunga. Nature was There are chronic states of suffering where
shown to be luxuriantly lush while the suicidal ideas may manifest. A classic
characters starved and committed inhumanely example is the increase in suicidal gestures in
deplorable acts. Here the glory of Nature subjects undergoing dialysis ( Perhaps stress
failed to revive sufferers of the Great Famine could be reduced if the subject had freedom
that ravished Bengal in 1943. There are two to stop dialysis if wished).
significances of the ambiguity between the
glory of Nature and the abjectly low mood. Though the risk of suicide in cancer patients
is higher than in the general population, it is
The first is the social imbroglio, as actually also surprising that many serious sufferers
in 1976, Sen proved how the Great Famine of cancer do not commit suicide. More often
of 1943 that led to the death of millions was than not, they zealously motivate themselves
artificial and man-made, a result of inflation (2). to fight all odds till the end. It is as if the
Naturally, such a man-made calamity would response is the opposite of the usual hyper
not be rejuvenated by the brightness of Nature. arousal in the classical fight or flight reaction.

The second is the psychological paradox Depression as a disease
that all attempts, including the brightness
of Nature cannot succeed in motivating the Depression as an independent disease, per
human mind once depression sets in. We are se, has emerged as one of the most important
confronted with a situation where depression morbidities of modern life. The question may
is not merely a symbol of a dysthymic be raised that was such depression as we know
mood but a clinical entity, a symptom of an today, present in earlier times. The ancient
underlying malady (malnutrition in case of Indian AAyurvedic texts had correct clinical
the famine) or an illness by its own reckoning. descriptions for schizophrenia. In contrast the
classical Sanskrit terms like abasad and bishad
Depression as a symptom signify depression as a mood-state and not as
disease. It might be that the spectre of depression
Depression can be a symptom of an underlying in a global scale with which we are confronted

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