Your query: I feel depressed and this is no passing mood. I feel like this for quite a long time, though now it’s getting worse. I find no satisfaction in my work or at home, and there is nothing particularly wrong with me except that I don’t feel well and I seem to be just spoiling my life away. At times I feel really bad. I say my prayers and I go to Mass and I do my duties, but nothing seems to help. What can I do to come out of this state?

My reaction: Depression has become a common word. It’s a modern disease, not because it didn’t exist before, but because it was not spoken about. It is also a young disease, as it is young people who feel it specially. But the complaint is old. My father St Ignatius had his own terminology for it. He spoke of ‘consolation’ and ‘desolation’, and he gave some concrete rules to deal with them.

‘Those who labour under desolation should be patient and think that they soon will find consolation. Those who enjoy consolation should think how they will act in the forthcoming desolation to gather strength for then.’ Simple enough, and practical enough. The roller coaster. The swing. Up and down, up and down. And the point is that when we are up we should think that sometime we’ll be down, and when we are down we should think soon we’ll be up. A matter of balance. Together with a good memory. And a lot of patience.