1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:03,080 Speaker 1: Got to tell you. It wasn't always called depression, but 2 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:05,960 Speaker 1: it's been around for a long time, and there's no 3 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:08,840 Speaker 1: doubt it is tough to deal with now. On the 4 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:12,719 Speaker 1: other hand, researchers say it's made some pretty terrific people, 5 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:17,840 Speaker 1: really exceptional. That includes folks like JFK, astronaut buzz Aldrin, 6 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: actor John Hamm, and most notably Abraham Lincoln. I'm Patty Steele. 7 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 1: The Upside of having the Blues. Next on the backstory. 8 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:34,520 Speaker 1: We're back with the backstory. There have been some really 9 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:38,720 Speaker 1: exceptional people who've accomplished what they have despite dealing with 10 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: depression because their pain made them aware of what others 11 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 1: were going through. Researchers say these folks are often dependable, analytical, loyal, 12 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:52,839 Speaker 1: self motivated, task oriented, patient and creative, and they're frequently 13 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 1: the best, most natural leaders. Abraham Lincoln is a perfect 14 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,160 Speaker 1: example of this, and we're going to get to him 15 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: in just a minute. Some other examples. Astronaut buzz Aldron 16 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 1: said when he returned from the moon, he felt a 17 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,320 Speaker 1: complete lack of purpose in his life. He said, I 18 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:12,679 Speaker 1: moved from drinking to depression, to heavier drinking to deeper depression, 19 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:15,200 Speaker 1: but he finally came to grips with all of it. 20 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:17,679 Speaker 1: With some help, he gave up the drinking and he 21 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: became a motivational speaker. Swimming superstar Michael Phelps, who's won 22 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 1: twenty eight Olympic medals, battled lifelong severe ADHD, but he 23 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:30,959 Speaker 1: says his first depression spell happened in two thousand and 24 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:33,679 Speaker 1: four and that it pushed him to achieve, to go 25 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: after success. But he says his lowest point actually came 26 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: after the twenty twelve Games because he'd achieved his purpose 27 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: and that's when he decided I need treatment. When he 28 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:48,840 Speaker 1: started talking about his feelings, he said, life became easy. 29 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: I now understand that it's okay to not be okay. 30 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: Madman's star John hamm has battled some heavy stuff in 31 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 1: his life. He's been open about his bouts with depression, 32 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 1: and he talked about the benefits of therapy. He said, 33 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: we live in a world where to admit anything negative 34 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:10,000 Speaker 1: about yourself is seen as a weakness, when actually it's 35 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,040 Speaker 1: a strength. It is not a weak move to say 36 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 1: I need help. Psychoanalysts say some great historical figures whose 37 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:21,840 Speaker 1: depression made them more compassionate include President John F. Kennedy, 38 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:26,600 Speaker 1: doctor Martin Luther King Junior, and Winston Churchill. Tuff's University 39 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:30,680 Speaker 1: professor doctor Nasir Gami says, depressive people tend to be 40 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:35,079 Speaker 1: more creative, more empathetic, and realistic. They look at themselves 41 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: and at the struggles of others more deeply. And that 42 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,919 Speaker 1: brings us back to Abe Lincoln, who's pretty universally considered 43 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,800 Speaker 1: to be our greatest president in the White House during 44 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 1: the Civil War, he did away with slavery, and he 45 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: held the country together. He was known to spend a 46 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:53,640 Speaker 1: large part of his time as president reading over pleas 47 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: from just average folks and meeting with them in person 48 00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:01,519 Speaker 1: about their husbands and sons who were facing punishment, including execution, 49 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 1: because they broke military rules. And that included a lot 50 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,680 Speaker 1: of teenagers who were just terrified of battle. He wanted 51 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:13,680 Speaker 1: to understand them. He was devoted to Americans, black, white, young, old, 52 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:17,000 Speaker 1: rich or poor. Don't you wonder what made him such 53 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,040 Speaker 1: an empathetic guy. Somebody could literally feel the emotional pain 54 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:24,320 Speaker 1: of total strangers. Well, folks who worked with him say 55 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: kindness and warmth radiated from him. But here's the thing. 56 00:03:28,639 --> 00:03:32,320 Speaker 1: That understanding of others was hard won. A Blincoln about 57 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:37,560 Speaker 1: a lifelong depression. Now imagine this. You have major political ambition, 58 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 1: but you're not very well known, and you have little 59 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 1: hope and not a lot of money. Then, due to 60 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,680 Speaker 1: political circumstances in the nation, your name gets on the 61 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:51,360 Speaker 1: long list of possible candidates for president of the nation. Again, 62 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: it seems hopeless, but the way it plays out puts 63 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: you at the top of the list. Then comes your 64 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:02,480 Speaker 1: introduction to the delegates. Welcome Abraham Lincoln, the rail candidate, 65 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: basically painting him as a guy who simply splits wooden 66 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: rails for a living, which he had been doing well. 67 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,040 Speaker 1: The crowd goes nuts. This is the kind of candidate 68 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: they want, and instead of all those sort of hot 69 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:17,919 Speaker 1: shot Ivy League guys, he was now a serious contender. 70 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: The meeting breaks up the next day, but in the 71 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:25,960 Speaker 1: nearly empty hall, Lincoln sits alone, hands covering his face. 72 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:29,880 Speaker 1: Someone asks if he's okay, and he tells them I'm 73 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,280 Speaker 1: not feeling too well. He is battling a crushing bout 74 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 1: of depression. Now here's his backstory. As a little boy 75 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: growing up in the backwoods of Kentucky and then Indiana. 76 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:45,279 Speaker 1: He loves learning, but his illiterate dad, Thomas isn't thrilled 77 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: with his son's passion. He wants a kid who's a 78 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:51,800 Speaker 1: farmer or a laborer, not an academic. So in Abe's 79 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 1: entire life, he had a total of less than one 80 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:57,920 Speaker 1: year of formal education. His dad just didn't want him 81 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 1: to go to school, while his Motherancy loved his thirst 82 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: for knowledge. She died when Abe was just nine years 83 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:07,240 Speaker 1: old and his sister Sarah was eleven. They watched their 84 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,520 Speaker 1: father bury her in the woods. Then a few months 85 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:14,120 Speaker 1: later he leaves those small kids with a teenage cousin 86 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:17,039 Speaker 1: in the cabin out in the woods and he goes 87 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 1: back to Kentucky to find a wife. For six months, 88 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: the children had defend for themselves in the wilderness until 89 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:27,680 Speaker 1: Thomas returned with his new wife, Sarah. The kids were 90 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:32,320 Speaker 1: completely ragged and hungry, and Sarah took tremendous care of them. 91 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 1: She adored Abe, giving him books whenever she could. Sidebar here. Oddly, 92 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:41,159 Speaker 1: that family cabin was eventually taken apart and sent to 93 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: Chicago to be rebuilt and displayed at the eighteen ninety 94 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:49,200 Speaker 1: three World's Fair. Decades and decades later, but guess what 95 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:53,880 Speaker 1: it was? Lost, never to be found odd now. As 96 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 1: for Abe, despite literally teaching himself to be a lawyer 97 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:01,800 Speaker 1: and becoming really successful at it, his sensitivity and painful 98 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:06,280 Speaker 1: life experiences left him deeply depressed. In those days, it 99 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:09,720 Speaker 1: was called melancholy. In fact, he told a friend, I 100 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:12,880 Speaker 1: am now the most miserable man living. If what I 101 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:16,560 Speaker 1: feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there 102 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 1: would not be one cheerful face on the earth. What 103 00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: helped him well, He certainly spent a lot of time 104 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: alone in self reflection. But also what helped him was 105 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: his ambition, believing he had a purpose, which gave him 106 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:38,240 Speaker 1: something to focus on, and humor. He loved to make 107 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:41,800 Speaker 1: people laugh. He also took blue mass, which was a 108 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:45,960 Speaker 1: drug made primarily from mercury. Kind of dangerous, right, But 109 00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:48,720 Speaker 1: he stopped that just as he became president, saying it 110 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:53,719 Speaker 1: made him angry. The book Lincoln's Melancholy says depression fueled 111 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:57,279 Speaker 1: his greatness, that it turned him into a realist without 112 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:02,600 Speaker 1: the misguided optimism of happier folk folks. That, interestingly, is 113 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:05,039 Speaker 1: how a lot of great folks have used their less 114 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:09,480 Speaker 1: optimistic outlook to help them figure a remarkable way forward. 115 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, 116 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:36,000 Speaker 1: the Elvis Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer 117 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:39,320 Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new 118 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:42,880 Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out 119 00:07:42,920 --> 00:07:46,560 Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram 120 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:49,600 Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. 121 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:52,960 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the 122 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.