that there's something foreign inside of them that needs to be exorcised, 他们认为自己身体里面有某些异质需要被驱除

but it's difficult with depressives,  但对于抑郁症患者来说这很难

because we believe we are seeing the truth.  因为我们坚信自己看到的是事实

But the truth lies.  但事实是会说谎的

I became obsessed with that sentence: "But the truth lies." 我非常喜欢这句话“事实是会说谎的。”

And I discovered, as I talked to depressive people,  当我与抑郁症患者交谈时我发现

that they have many delusional perceptions.  他们有很多妄想出来的念头

People will say, "No one loves me."  人们会说，“没人爱我。”

And you say, "I love you, your wife loves you, your mother loves you."  然后你说，“我爱你，你的妻子爱你，你的母亲爱你。”

You can answer that one pretty readily, at least for most people. 你可以很快给出这个答案，至少对大多数人是如此

But people who are depressed will also say,  但是抑郁的人还会说

"No matter what we do, we're all just going to die in the end." “不论我们做什么，最终都是要死的。”

Or they'll say, "There can be no true communion between two human beings. 或者他们说，“两个人之间是不可能有真正的亲密交往的，

Each of us is trapped in his own body."  我们每个人都被自己的身体所束缚了。“

To which you have to say,  对于这个你只有回应说

"That's true, but I think we should focus right now on what to have for breakfast." “这点没错，但我觉得我们眼下要考虑的是早上该吃什么。“

A lot of the time, what they are expressing is not illness, but insight, 许多时候困扰他们的不是疾病本身，而是对一些事实的偏执

and one comes to think what's really extraordinary  他们会对一些事实超乎常人的在意

is that most of us know about those existential questions and they don't distract us very much. 但是对于我们绝大多数人而言，并不在意这些有关存在的问题

There was a study I particularly liked in which a group of depressed 我有一个特别喜欢的研究，是要一组抑郁症患者

and a group of non-depressed people were asked to play a video game for an hour,  和一组非抑郁症患者分别打一小时的电子游戏

and at the end of the hour,  一小时结束的时候问他们

they were asked how many little monsters they thought they had killed. 他们认为自己杀了多少只小怪兽

The depressive group was usually accurate to within about 10 percent, 抑郁组的答案往往准确，误差不超过百分之十

and the non-depressed people guessed between 15 and 20 times as many little monsters as they had actually killed. 而非抑郁组的人估计的小怪兽数量却是实际杀掉的15到20倍

A lot of people said, when I chose to write about my depression,  当我决定写下自己的抑郁经历时，许多人说

that it must be very difficult to be out of that closet, to have people know. 要揭开这个秘密让别人知道一定非常不容易

They said, "Do people talk to you differently?"  他们说，”人们会用不一样的口吻跟你说话吗？“

And I said, "Yes, people talk to me differently.  我说，”是的，人们用不一样的口吻跟我说话。

They talk to me differently insofar as they start telling me about their experience, 这种不一样体现在人们会告诉我他们自己的经历

or their sister's experience, or their friend's experience. 或是他们的兄弟姐妹的经历，或是他们朋友的经历

Things are different because now I know that depression is the family secret that everyone has. 我现在明白，每个家庭都埋藏着一个抑郁的故事，这改变了我的看法