We are all vulnerable to poor mental health.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He led the country through the Civil war and paved the way for the abolishment of slavery. He was a visionary, and a great leader. In fact, Michael Burlingame. Professor Emeritus of History at Connecticut College, writes: no President in American history ever faced a greater crisis and no President ever accomplished as much. [i] But did you know he was suffering debilitating depression. Robert L Wilson, [ii] who served in the Illinois legislature with Abraham Lincoln, shed some light on the health and wellbeing of the 16th president’s mind and stated that he was overcome with mental depression. [iii] He was suffering badly and yet he managed to accomplish so much; how did he do it?

Modern clinicians, using the standard diagnostic criteria, agree that Lincoln certainly suffered with depression. But a modern diagnosis does not explain how Lincoln wrestled with the monsters in his head, and where it led him. [iv] Lincoln didn’t hide his depression, but he did have strategies in place. He used humour and storytelling, and confided in others when he was really struggling (often losing the struggle). He learned to live with his depressive disposition well before Prozac was discovered, and is known as a great leader who led the United States through a civil war, and halted the expansion of slavery to frontier states. He was depressed, but he found ways to overcome his unwell mind.

If mental illness can happen to someone like Lincoln, it can happen to anyone

Just as we all have cells in our body that could become cancerous, we all have the potential to develop mental illness. This doesn’t mean that we will of course. Just like our cells have inbuilt safety measures, so does our mind. But it is our responsibility to provide our mind with the care it requires to be well.

Take the time to imagine six visual analogue scales all labelled neatly. A visual analogue scale is a 10 cm line with anchors placed along the length defining – in this case – different dimensions of mental health. The line is anchored at one end with 0 – meaning no feeling, and 10 – meaning extremely intense feeling. Now imagine that the first scale has a label of depression, the next is labelled anxiety, the next is attention deficit disorder (ADHD), the next is labelled bipolar disorder, the next autism/Asperger’s, and the last schizophrenia. There are many more ‘disorders’, but let’s just use these as an example.

So, imagine every human is sitting somewhere on these scales – you don’t have a choice, we are all somewhere on every scale – it may be at 0, but we are on there. Now visualise the analogue scale for depression. You are lying on the scale, with 0 being ‘not one skerrick of melancholy’, and 10 being the ‘depths of doom and despair – not functioning or getting out of bed’.

You, after years of semi abuse to your body, that is, eating takeout at least two to three times a week, binge drinking on weekends, burning the candle at both ends with poor sleep quality, and very little physical activity, are sitting at around 4 or 5. You have moments of feeling depressed, lack motivation at times, sometimes feel that life has little meaning, and you occasionally find it hard to find joy in the little things. Then, one day, while you are walking through life just fine (on this scale at about 4 or 5,) your partner leaves you. You are left heartbroken and desolate.

Because your mind doesn’t have the strength or resources, as a result of poor lifestyle choices (because you weren’t even aware that you could protect your mind with good lifestyle choices), the break up is the catalyst for jumping right on up that scale to an 8–9! You stop eating, you sleep all day, can’t sleep at night, and you can’t function – you feel that the meaning to life has just evaporated. There are moments when you want to end it, or feel life is just pointless.

The point of this analogy is to argue that we all have the predisposition to slip over on the scale to the manifestation of an emotional/mind illness, such as anxiety or depression. No one is exempt, and so we need to care for the health of our mind!

Being open and seeking help is important. Like Lincoln we can talk about our struggles and also adopt a positive approach to life. This sounds impossible when drowning in the depths of despair, but mindset is everything. If you cant think positive then speak positive. Stop using words such as ‘I can’t,’ ‘I’m useless,’ ‘its hopeless,’ and instead make the effort to flip it and use positive phrases such as ‘I can do this,’ ‘I will get through it,’ ‘everything will be okay.’ You may not believe it but if you say positive things often then your mind catches on eventually.

Focus on two things you can be grateful for every day. It may be as simple as ‘the sun is out,’ or ‘I have clean drinking water.’ It’s really hard to feel hopeless when you are focusing on things to be thankful for.

But most importantly, understand that we all struggle, we are all in the same boat, and it will pass.

[i] Michael Burlingame. Abraham Lincoln: Impact and Legacy. 2019 [online] UVA Miller Center

https://millercenter.org/node/46801?field_full_node_value=&page=11

[ii] Robert L Wilson was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives and was a member of the ‘Long Nine’ of Whig assemblymen of Sangamon County. Abraham Lincoln was also a member of the party and the pair became friends. http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/the-politicians/robert-wilson/

[iii] Blumenthal, Sidney. A Self Made Man: The political life of Abraham Lincoln Vol 1, 1809-1849. New York : Simon and Schuster, 2016.

[iv] R.J.Norton. Abraham Lincoln Research Site. [Online] 2019. [Cited: June 12, 2019.] https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln84.html.