depression

"The Chinese believe that before you can conquer a beast you first must make it beautiful" (5).

--Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind

 

Depression has been on the rise in the United States, with as many as 10% of people suffering at any given time. One in ten people will suffer a depressive episode at least once in their lifetime. It is becoming increasingly common in adolescents, and physicians are more eager than ever to prescribe antidepressants to anyone who shows even mild signs of depression. Prozac Nation chronicles a decade’s worth of suffering of Elizabeth Wurtzel, a young woman in the throes of an atypical depression.

When Dante and Virgil pass through the threshold of Hell, they see a number of souls frantically running behind an empty flag. Bumblebees and wasps fly all around them, biting them. They are bleeding. Repellent worms devour their blood mixed with tears on the ground.
These are the souls of Sloth, those who lived to be lazy, to be indolent for lack of will, to be cowardly, to be indifferent. They refused to decide, they did not make any commitment to others, they saw their life as tedious and devoid of purpose, so they did not experience the power of human freedom while they were alive.
Since they did not experience the world in their lifetime, now they are constantly and shamefully stimulated and forced to move.