Rudy (real name withheld) has suffered from Melancholia all his life. His first recollection was that at age five, he would run away from attending Kindergarten and come home to his room of darkness. He would find that sitting in the dark was what he preferred.

At age 47, he was in a Real Estate business with a partner. For all intents and purposes, his business was going well. He relied on word of mouth decisions to run his business and left his partner to manage the accounting and administrative sides of business. He trusted his partner completely and thought he had a strong relationship with his business partner.

One day, his partner told him that he had a debt of $50,000. Rudy did not question his partner in detail about his debt. He instead went home and discussed this with his wife. There was a heated exchange between the two and his wife told him that she was leaving. He pleaded with her but to no avail. Late in the night, she packed her bags, called a cab and left.

Rudy did not know what to do. He decided he should go to bed in the hope that he would analyse his issues in the morning and come up with an acceptable solution. He however did not sleep all night.

Waking up at around 4am, he walked into a dark room which he had used before. The room was painted dark blue. Dark blue curtains and a dim light contributed to its darkness. It was still pitch dark outside. The room was as silent as a graveyard. In one corner of the room was a bed barely visible. Wayne headed towards this sitting on the bed and switching off the light. He wanted the comfort of darkness.

He sat there on the bed feeling isolated from the World. Burying his head into his hands, he contemplated his future. There appeared to be no way forward. The tentacles of debt, deceit and lost relationship were stabbing deep into his mind from all angles. If he escaped from one, the second issue became more prominent. It was as if a slow moving truck was rolling over his body and there was no escape.

He therefore contemplated killing himself. He thought for a minute about whether he should ascend the ladder of death slowly. This would mean for him jumping from a bridge into a river, drifting downstream in the swift current and slowing drowning into death. Out of the blue came a call, the shrill sound of which brought him to the present. On the other end of the line was his best friend who came over quickly and took him to the hospital.

So through the help of a very close friend, he picked himself up and now works as a Real Estate Agent. He has progressed quickly, paid off his debts and is doing very well for himself.

There are a number of symptoms of this form of depression that this brief case study highlights which I want to summarize. These are:

• Melancholic Depression can be caused through a stressful situation or event. It can cause other consequences such as break up in relationship.
• Such a situation can result in the sufferer feeling sad, moody or crappy, hopeless, helpless, numb and empty.
• It leaves the sufferer anxious about the future.
• The sufferer feels empty, self critical and wanting to run away from everything. Often the person who suffers from such a condition loses interest in life.
• Melancholia causes insomnia.
• The sufferer can also have suicidal tendencies.

It is important that anyone suffering from melancholia seeks expert medical advice as quickly as possibly.