Listen: Andrew Solomon on why depression can be as serious as heart disease

When it comes to depression we suffer from a poverty of language. So argues Andrew Solomon in conversation with  Prospect’s Arts and Books Editor Sameer Rahim. Solomon’s award-winning book  The Noonday Demon, which analyses the history of depression and the author’s own mental health problems, has just been re-issued in the UK with substantial new material. Solomon wonders why we use the same word to describe an unhappy child as we do for a suicidal woman. As with physical illness, he argues, we should not expect sufferers to fight the disease on their own. Unbounded love from those around us is the key to recovery.