スクリプトは事前提出されたものですので、ビデオの音声とは異なる場合があります。 ビデオの読み込みに時間がかかる場合は、下段の Small 版をお試しください。

Melancholia ― Everybody Should Know

Otaki Takashi (Sendai National College of Technology, Hirose)

Is there anyone melancholic around you? At present, the ratio of melancholia among Japanese people is said to be about 5%, which means that every 20th person is suffering from melancholia. These days, it's not unusual to become melancholic. I myself had been suffering from symptoms of melancholia for more than a year in my junior high school days, too. I was unable to go to school for about four months. So, today, I'll tell you my experiences and give you three pieces of advice not to become melancholic or to recover from melancholia, based on these experiences.

When I entered a junior high school, I had less free time because the club activities began. When I was in a primary school, I spent most of my free time playing with my PC and video games. So I often postponed studying or doing homework.

A pile of homework accelerated my feeling that I didn't want to do the homework. I slept for fewer hours at home and I frequently fell asleep during class. I was considered a serious, hard-working student by others, so the gap between what other people thought I was and what I really was made me feel very fearful. Because of these things, I was in very low spirits and doing poorly at school. Gradually, I began to have nightmares, sleep only three hours at night, and feel reluctant to go to school in the morning, and I often nodded off during class. My life was like that. And then, suddenly, the symptoms of melancholia began to appear when I was in the 8th grade; I breathed heavily and broke into a cold sweat, and my hands became numb. These symptoms are called “a panic spasm.” Because this spasm often happened, I hated to go to school more and more. Finally, I became unable to go to school, stayed at home all day long, and went to see the psychiatrist periodically. But now, I think that these matters could have been solved earlier if I had followed the following three pieces of advice.

First, you should talk about your worries to others. It is often said that troubles are half solved when you talk about them with other people. Furthermore, expressing your worries in words makes unclear matters clear. If you don't want your worries to become known to anyone, I suggest you should consult a counselor. On the other hand, if someone consults with you, you should be careful never to say the following phrases: “Do your best!”, “Look on the bright side!”, and “Never give up!” It may be natural that healthy people say these encouraging phrases, but it often results in giving that person more pain, because he or she is already a hard worker.

Second, when the symptoms such as sleeplessness or little appetite appear, you should go to a hospital or a clinic as soon as you can. If you keep holding these symptoms, your physical condition may get worse, which can make your mental condition even worse. Recently, some types of medicine are used for the treatment of melancholia. But this medicine is not quick-acting and it may take some time until you begin to feel its effects. So you should wait for a while until it begins to work.

Finally, you should keep steady daily routines; especially you should have enough time to sleep at night. This is in order not to carry over your physical fatigue until the next day. In addition, you should try to go outside as often as possible. I suggest you should take a walk early in the morning.

These three pieces of advice might sound too obvious, but carrying them out is not so easy. For example, it needs extraordinary courage for people who have stayed indoors at home to go out for a walk. As forcing yourself to do them may be counterproductive, you don't need to rush. But I do believe that if melancholic people do these things, they will restore themselves someday.

Now, I am a student at a national college of technology. When I was a junior high school student, I didn't think that I could pass the entrance examination to Kosen. But I'm standing here, overcoming my mental disease. So I do hope from the bottom of my heart that the number of melancholic people will decrease, overcoming their mental illness.