Depression: A Deadly Disease " 'A symptom of the bad times is that you think that they will never abate. You convince yourself that you are doomed forever to a state of half-life. You awake to a sighing gloom and an inordinate effort of will is required to leave your bed. You know that you should get up to arrest the feeling of despair, but the listlessness which is a characteristic of the condition holds you there, gazing upwards in static stare, musing over the endlessness of the day ahead. Everything is an effort and is carried out in slow motion. The smallest task is a weight on you...Minor problems become issues of magnitude. Decisions are deferred and avoided