Interlude: They got out of bed:
I am Depressive. I find it hard to get out of bed in the morning. This is not the ‘Damn-the-alarm-clock-it-can’t-be-six-o’clock-already’ which most people feel, at least occasionally. This is an ‘I-couldn’t-get-out-of-bed-even-if-the-house-was-on-fire-and-the-bedsheets-had-just-started-smouldering.’ I was often late for school and I have been more often late for work than on time. My Father told me that I’d never hold down a job because I’d be fired for lateness after the first month – and he came closer to the truth than I like to think about.
Perhaps you are depressive, too, and have trouble getting out of bed to get your day started. But before you and I get too maudlin about the ‘poor us’ thing I’d like you to look over a list of names I found on the Internet. There are many such lists, but I think this Wikipedia list is the most complete. I’m sure you’ll recognise quite a few of them. They were all Depressive, too, like us, but they managed to drag themselves out of bed; and thank God they did. The world would be a much sadder and less interesting place if they’d said “I’m depressive, and nobody expects me to be able to achieve anything, so I think I’ll just stay in bed.”
(Thanks to Wikipedia for this list; for more info on this – or on just about anything – go to http://www.wikipedia.org )
List of people with major depressive disorder
• John Adams, 2nd President of the United States
• Caroline Aherne, British comedienne]
• Alan Alda, American actor and author
• Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut,
• Woody Allen, American film director and comedian
• Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer
• Hideaki Anno, Japanese animator and film director
• Malcolm Arnold, British composer
• Isaac Asimov, American author and professor
• Julian Assange, Australian publisher and editor (WikiLeaks)
• Alec Baldwin, American actor
• Charles Baudelaire, French poet
• Amanda Beard, American Olympic Gold Medalist
• Ingmar Bergman, Swedish film director
• Halle Berry, American actress.
• William Blake, British poet and painter
• David Bohm, British quantum physicist
• Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway
• Jon Bon Jovi, American rock singer and songwriter
• Lorraine Bracco, American actress
• Art Buchwald, humorist
• Barbara Bush First Lady of the United States 1989–93
• Truman Capote, American writer
• Drew Carey, American comedian and actor
• Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian
• Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer-songwriter
• Johnny Carson, American television presenter.
• Helena Bonham Carter, British actress
• Dick Cavett, American talk show host
• Raymond Chandler, writer of detective fiction
• Ray Charles, African-American singer
• Agatha Christie, English crime writer
• Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister
• Eric Clapton, singer
• Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer-songwriter
• Stan Collymore, British footballer
• Joseph Conrad, Polish writer
• Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States.
• Sheryl Crow, American singer-songwriter
• Roméo Dallaire, Canadian general, senator and humanitarian
• Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian and actor
• Charles Darwin, British
• Edgar Degas, French painter
• Ellen DeGeneres, American comedian and talk show host
• John Denver, American musician
• Johnny Depp, American Actor
• Diana, Princess of Wales
• Charles Dickens, British writer
• Emily Dickinson, American poet
• Kirsten Dunst, American-German actress
• Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, poet and artist
• Blake Edwards American film director and producer
• Eminem, American rapper
• William Faulkner, American author
• Harrison Ford, American actor
• Michel Foucault, French philosopher
• Peter Gabriel, British singer and band member of Genesis
• Paul Gauguin, French painter
• Paul Getty, British philanthropist
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt, American actor
• Francisco de Goya, Spanish painter
• Graham Greene, British writer
• Tony Hancock, English actor and comedian
• Elizabeth Hartman, American actress
• Anne Hathaway, American actress
• Ernest Hemingway, American writer
• Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-British actress
• Sir Anthony Hopkins, British actor
• Frankie Howard OBE, British comedian
• Sir Julian Huxley, British biologist, author and administrator
• Janet Jackson, American singer
• Henry James, British writer
• William James, American philosopher and
• Billy Joel, American musician
• Samuel Johnson, British biographer, essayist and poet
• Daniel Johnston, American musician
• Angelina Jolie, American actress
• Franz Kafka, Czech writer
• John Keats, British poet
• Stephen King, American author
• Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German painter
• Alan Ladd, American actor
• John Lennon, MBE, British singer-songwriter
• David Letterman, American comedian and TV presenter
• Abraham Lincoln, American lawyer and politician,
• Heather Locklear, American actress
• Courtney Love, American singer and actress
• Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer
• Henri Matisse, French painter
• Guy de Maupassant, French writer
• Herman Melville, American writer
• Michelangelo, Italian painter and sculptor
• Spike Milligan, Irish comedian and writer
• Kylie Minogue, Australian singer
• Marilyn Monroe, American actress and sex symbol
• Alanis Morissette, Canadian musician and songwriter
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer
• Isaac Newton, British Scientist
• Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher
• Eugene O'Neill, American playwright
• Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist
• Marie Osmond, American musician
• Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress
• Dolly Parton, American country singer and actress
• Brad Pitt, American actor
• Sylvia Plath, American writer
• Edgar Allan Poe, American poet and writer
• Jackson Pollock, American painter
• Charley Pride, American country music singer
• Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer and pianist
• Charlotte Rampling, English actress
• Anne Rice, American writer
• Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet
• John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist
• J. K. Rowling, British writer
• Winona Ryder, American actress
• J. D. Salinger, American author
• Robert Schumann, German composer
• Brooke Shields, American actress
• Britney Spears, American pop singer
• Rick Springfield, American singer-songwriter
• Bruce Springsteen, American singer-songwriter
• Rod Steiger, American actor
• Amy Tan, American writer
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer
• Emma Thompson, British actress and screenwriter
• Uma Thurman, American actress
• Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer
• Mark Twain, American writer
• Mike Tyson, African-American boxer
• Vincent van Gogh – Dutch artist
• Kurt Vonnegut – American author
• Mike Wallace, American journalist
• Evelyn Waugh, British novelist and journalist
• Walt Whitman, American poet
• Oscar Wilde, British-Irish playwright, poet, lecturer,
• Robin Williams, American comedian and actor
• Tennessee Williams, American playwright
• Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host
• Reese Witherspoon, American actress and producer
• Virginia Woolf, British novelist
• Boris Yeltsin, first President of Russia