In order that people who suffer from depression seek treatment

Hear the voice of Gayle Forman, who spoke with clarity and compassion: “In order that people who suffer from depression seek treatment without a second thought, the stigmas must further fall until we reach a point in time when that person with leukemia and that person with depression both receive the same level of sympathy and the same level of rigorous treatment. Both people deserve it.” In these words lies not only a plea but a vision—a vision of a world where the wounds of the mind are not diminished, where the pain of the spirit is not dismissed, and where all who suffer are met with equal sympathy and care.

The meaning of this saying pierces the heart. For too long, society has treated illnesses of the body as real and undeniable, while illnesses of the mind have been cloaked in shame and misunderstanding. A person stricken with leukemia is surrounded with compassion, medical care, and communal support. Yet a person weighed down by depression often finds their suffering questioned, their courage doubted, their plea for help answered with silence or scorn. Forman declares this must not be so. To heal truly as a people, we must tear down the walls of stigma until both are seen with the same urgency, the same dignity, the same love.

The ancients themselves knew the peril of ignoring the inner life. Hippocrates, father of medicine, spoke not only of the balance of the body but of the humors of the mind, recognizing that melancholy was as real as fever. Yet through the centuries, this wisdom was often lost. Those afflicted with mental anguish were branded as weak, as cursed, or even as possessed, rather than as sufferers in need of healing. In calling for equal treatment, Forman restores an ancient truth: that the soul is not lesser than the flesh, and that health must mean wholeness in both body and spirit.

History offers a story of sorrow and awakening. During the First World War, soldiers returned from the trenches shaking, trembling, broken in spirit. They were accused of cowardice, dismissed as weak. Yet in time, the world came to understand this as shell shock, what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder. When compassion replaced condemnation, treatment became possible, and countless lives were restored. This is the same path Forman urges: let us replace stigma with sympathy, and denial with rigorous healing, so that those in darkness may find light.

The lesson for us is deep and urgent. We must remember that depression is not weakness; it is suffering. It is not a failure of will; it is an illness. Just as no one would scorn a cancer patient for seeking chemotherapy, no one should scorn a struggling soul for seeking therapy or medicine. To do so is not only cruel but unjust. The call of our age is to enlarge our hearts, to expand our compassion, and to honor the dignity of all who suffer, whether their wounds are visible or invisible.

Practical action follows: speak openly of mental health, for silence breeds shame. Offer kindness rather than judgment when a friend confesses their struggle. Support policies and practices that ensure rigorous treatment for depression as for any other illness. Teach your children that the mind is as sacred as the body, and that caring for one’s soul is as honorable as healing a wound of flesh. In this way, each of us becomes a builder of the world that Forman envisioned.

So let these words endure as a torch: both people deserve it—the one with leukemia, the one with depression, the one with any burden of suffering. Until the stigmas fall, we are not yet a compassionate people. But when they do fall, and when sympathy and treatment flow equally to all, then we shall be nearer to the fullness of humanity, where every life is honored, every pain respected, and every soul given the chance to heal.