Abraham Lincoln’s Depression

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Little do most people know, our sixteenth President Abraham Lincoln, suffered from a depression also known as Melancholy. Lincoln was, considered by most, one of our greatest Presidents. As a U.S. president, Lincoln had many great accomplishments. For example he had a vital role in preserving the Union during the Civil War, he ended slavery, had good speeches and letters and was very humble. On the outside “Honest Abe” was a strong, intelligent man. On the inside, he was falling apart. Few people these days and in this century know of Lincoln’s condition while he was in office. Oddly though, Lincoln was very open about his depression while running for office. Because the public knew about his condition, many people wonder if it had any effect on the peoples voting preference. He won the election so apparently the people didn’t care. Some people became curious of Lincoln’s case and if depression ran in his family or if it was just something that came up. Abraham Lincoln’s Melancholy is the perfect scenario of how broken people can be on the inside but seem perfectly fine on the outside. Did Abraham Lincoln suffer with depression in the early years of his life or did he just come down with it as he got older? Well many historians have found that Lincoln was diagnosed as a young man to suffer from Melancholy. If he had been suffering for a while, how did he learn to cope with being sad all the time? Could you imagine being sad most of the time and just having to deal with it and go on with life? It would be very hard. Since Lincoln was diagnosed as a young man, throughout his life he suffered many breakdowns. His break downs consisted of him saying things like “I am the most miserable man living,” and often talked about committing ... ... middle of paper ... ...p://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/10/lincolns-great-depression/304247/ Siegel, Robert. "Exploring Abraham Lincoln's 'Melancholy'" NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4976127 "‘Gloom and Sadness’: How Abraham Lincoln’s Depression Got Him Elected." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 01 May 2013. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. http://news.yahoo.com/gloom-sadness-abraham-lincolns-depression-got-him-elected- 181404681.html "11 Things You May Not Know About Abraham Lincoln." 11 Things You May Not Know About Abraham Lincoln. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/history/2012/Abraham-Lincoln-Facts.html "NAMI - The National Alliance on Mental Illness." NAMI. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=20054&Template=/ContentManagement/ ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=27041

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