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The last time I__ been unwell, suicidally depressed, whatever you want to call it, the reactions of my friends and family had fallen into several different camps:The Let__ Laugh It Off merchants: Claire was the leading light. They hoped that joking about my state of mind would reduce it to a manageable size. Most likely to say, __eeling any mad urges to fling yourself into the sea?__he Depression Deniers: they were the ones who took the position that since there was no such thing as depression, nothing could be wrong with me. Once upon a time I__ have belonged in that category myself. A subset of the Deniers was The Tough Love people. Most likely to say, __hat have you got to be depressed about?__he It__ All About Me bunch: they were the ones who wailed that I couldn__ kill myself because they__ miss me so much. More often than not, I__ end up comforting them. My sister Anna and her boyfriend, Angelo, flew three thousand miles from New York just so I could dry their tears. Most likely to say, __ave you any idea how many people love you?__he Runaways: lots and lots of people just stopped ringing me. Most of them I didn__ care about, but one or two were important to me. Their absence was down to fear; they were terrified that whatever I had, it was catching. Most likely to say, __ feel so helpless _ God, is that the time?_ Bronagh _ though it hurt me too much at the time to really acknowledge it _ was the number one offender.The Woo-Woo crew: i.e. those purveying alternative cures. And actually there were hundreds of them _ urging me to do reiki, yoga, homeopathy, bible study, sufi dance, cold showers, meditation, EFT, hypnotherapy, hydrotherapy, silent retreats, sweat lodges, felting, fasting, angel channelling or eating only blue food. Everyone had a story about something that had cured their auntie/boss/boyfriend/next-door neighbour. But my sister Rachel was the worst _ she had me plagued. Not a day passed that she didn__ send me a link to some swizzer. Followed by a phone call ten minutes later to make sure I__ made an appointment. (And I was so desperate that I even gave plenty of them a go.) Most likely to say, __his man__ a miracle worker._ Followed by: __hat__ why he__ so expensive. Miracles don__ come cheap.__here was often cross-pollination between the different groupings. Sometimes the Let__ Laugh It Off merchants teamed up with the Tough Love people to tell me that recovering from depression is __imply mind over matter_. You just decide you__e better. (The way you would if you had emphysema.)Or an All About Me would ring a member of the Woo-Woo crew and sob and sob about how selfish I was being and the Woo-Woo crew person would agree because I had refused to cough up two grand for a sweat lodge in Wicklow.Or one of the Runaways would tiptoe back for a sneaky look at me, then commandeer a Denier into launching a two-pronged attack, telling me how well I seemed. And actually that was the worst thing anyone could have done to me, because you can only sound like a self-pitying malingerer if you protest, __ut I don__ feel well. I feel wretched beyond description.__ot one person who loved me understood how I__ felt. They hadn__ a clue and I didn__ blame them, because, until it had happened to me, I hadn__ a clue either.