The comedian Jimmy Carr received a message from someone who had been severely depressed, tried to end his life. The man said that Carr’s comedy kept him going.
Carr put the message on a screen at one of his live events and read it out loud. Then he turned to the audience and asked the man to say hello after the show – or (if he liked) identify himself there and then.
The house lights went up. The man identified himself. There was huge applause.
They exhanged a few words. More applause.
Then Carr said something that seems very important:
I think when you are depressed, it’s about being an individual. You’re on your own. In your own head. And we’ve all got dispersed identities. Our identities are who we are with our friends, our families, with our other half…
When we lose the sense of those dispersed identities, how could we not be depressed?