While depression is often recurrent, there is a suprisingly large and special subgroup of the depressed who defy the odds and have only a single lifetime episode. A recent analysis by Scott Monroe and Kate Harkness estimate that about half of those with a first episode will *never* have a return of depression in their lifetime.
In a post, a few weeks ago I echoed Monroe and Harkness's call to study people with a single lifetime episode of depression, or the SLEDs. There is reason to think that studying the SLEDs may teach us about how to escape the return of depression.
One of the big problems, though, is that the SLEDs have been elusive. They do not typically make it into research studies. I speculated that this absence may reflect both motivation and self-concept. The SLEDs are less likely to define themselves in terms of depression. They may forget or not want to aknowledge their history of depression. People who do not think of themselves in terms of depression or conceal their depression are, clearly, less likely to volunteer for research studies on the topic of depression.
Towards the end of the post, I invited anyone who was a SLED (or thought they might be one) to drop me a line. I didn't expect to receive a torrent of responses but I expected that at least a half dozen or so people might write me about how they got over depression and that they have remained well ever since. I can report that at this writing I received only one response! This is a smaller response than virtually any post I can think of in the two+ years I have been writing the Charting the Depths blog! While it's possible that this was an especially wretched post, I think a more likely hypothesis is that there aren't many SLEDs who read this blog, or any other blog about depression.
I continue to think that the existence of the SLEDs is a ray of hope. But I am newly sobered about the task of studying the SLEDs in any numbers. And I now appreciate first hand what a challenge it is going to be to learn from them.
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Reference:
Monroe SM, Harkness KL. Recurrence in major depression: A conceptual analysis.Psychological Review, 118, 655-674.
If you are a SLED, I would still love to hear from you about your experiences. Email me at chartingthedepths@gmail.com
