A personal, essayistic entry in the Turning Toward —— series, reflecting on depression as it is lived, studied, and observed. It begins with the long human habit of reaching for images of light and darkness to name what resists naming — Milton's "darkness visible," Styron's memoir, Dante's dark wood, the old idea of melancholia — and then offers one person's working theory: that much everyday depression grows less from mistakes themselves than from the regret and torment left in their wake, and that consideration — of other people's unseen moments, and of our own buried "why" — can itself be a light in the dark. The piece treats the "chemical imbalance" story with current care, noting that the serotonin account has not held up under systematic review, and points to the strong evidence for "talking it out." It lands on a simple, hopeful proposition: that constructive kindness, offered even to those we resent, may be much of what healing asks of us. The piece opens with crisis resources and is explicitly not a substitute for professional care.
Jamison Johsnon (Mon,) studied this question.