* You are not alone! Depression is one of the most common mental disorders affecting 340 million people in the world today, accounting for a full 10% of productive years lost throughout the world.
* No one is immune from depression - it occurs in people of all social classes, all countries and all cultural settings.
* About 10-15 per cent of depressed people take their own lives. Depression costs for example the United States an estimated $53 billion each year.
* The World Health Organisation predicts that by the year 2020 depression will be the greatest burden of ill-health to people in the developing world, and that by then severe depression will be the second largest cause of death and disability.
* Depression in its various forms (insomnia, fatigue, anxiety, stress, vague aches and pains, etc.) is the most common complaint heard in doctors' offices.
* About half of all cases of depression is unrecognised and untreated.