Chad Allen Online: The Official Fan Site

ALLEN: She still has it. However, it's those societal factors, what's going on in your life, that contributed.

KING: Let me get a break. We'll get Tanya Tucker's story and Linda Dano's. More from your doctor and your calls. Our subject is depression and what to do about it. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE WALLACE, CBS NEWS: I've recovered. And by golly, I figured I owed something. I have a remarkable physician here in New York by the name of Dr. Marvin Kaplan, and he did so much for me, through three episodes. I owe it to let people out there understand, Larry, it can be treated, you can get better, and it is not all that difficult if you hang in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CAVETT, MAY 1999: I think I said this in "People" magazine, that so many people said they can identify with it. When you've got it, if there were a magic wand across the room on the table that would make you happy and give you everything you want, it would be too much trouble to cross the room and pick it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Linda Dano, the Emmy award-winning actress and television personality was diagnosed with depression following the deaths of her husband and mother. She's now a pain spokesperson for Support Partners, the national outreach program cosponsored by Eli Lilly & Co., and the National Women's Health Resource Center. Eli Lilly makes -- what anti-depressant do they make, Linda?

LINDA DANO, SUPPORT PARTNERS SPOKESPERSON: I'm not -- I don't -- Larry, hi. I'm not here to talk about that as much as I am what has worked for me. You had mentioned earlier about...

KING: OK.

DANO: ...my husband and my mother both going, days apart from each other, and I was sad and grief-stricken. And then, all of a sudden, months into that, it became something quite different.

KING: You had no indication before the occurrences of the death?

DANO: No. No.

KING: So it was event-oriented?

DANO: For me, yes, but, as the doctor has said, depression comes in all sorts of ways that I can't even begin to tell you. And, for me, it was a hopelessness, and I didn't care about anything, and I had physical pain, down my neck and back, and my legs. I still have that, and I am in the throes right now of this illness and am working with my doctor to decide what it is I need to do.

But the single thing that has helped me is to reach out to friends. In my case, I have three girlfriends who have been my support partners.

KING: Do you take medication?

DANO: I may. I'm not opposed to that. I'm now, as I said, going through this. I'm sort of weighing that as an option. KING: You are depressed now, then?

DANO: Yes. Yes.

KING: This event-oriented depression, Dr. Swartz, common?

SWARTZ: Often, there's a trigger, that people will look in their life and be able to say, this seems to have tipped the balance and put me into the depression. And, unfortunately, sometimes that can be a major loss, such as a death of a loved one, but, alone, too, being such a large stress.

KING: Tanya Tucker, in Atlanta, the country music legend, has suffered from depression. She's the author of a book, "100 Ways to Beat the Blues." When did this start for you, Tanya? There's the book. When did this start?

TANYA TUCKER, MUSICIAN, AUTHOR "100 WAYS TO BEAT THE BLUES": Well, I have never really spoken about it. This -- this -- writing this book, I think, probably conjured up a lot of that, as I was speaking, a lot of interviews and doing these things, and speaking about it, just kind of brought it all back. And it's been about 10 years. I mean, I was -- I didn't know what was happening to me. I woke up one night and looked down at my daughter, Presley, and she seemed like she was so big and she was growing so fast.

And all of a sudden, I started getting a rash and just a feeling of -- I've never felt it before. I was so upset about it, I ran into the bathroom, and I looked in the mirror, and I looked -- and I had red splotches all over my body. And then I thought, you know, I have got to wake my mother up -- she was visiting with me -- and she'll know what it is. So, I ran in and I said, Mother, what am I going through? Something's happening to me. I don't know what it is. She said, hone -- she said, I know what's happening to you. You're having one of those panic attacks, and she said, but I've got one piece of advice for you. The only thing I can tell you is that it won't kill you. And that was -- you know, she said that's the last thing I can tell you, that it won't kill you.

From there, I got progressively worse. The more people told me that, you know, wow, you should be so blessed. Don't you feel blessed? And you have all this -- mansion and all these beautiful things. And I said, you know -- the more they told me that, the more depressed I got. At one point, I didn't get out of bed for, I think, three months, and I went down to the bottom of the hill one day and I had to call somebody to get me to come back up -- come pick me up because I couldn't physically walk up the hill.

KING: What helped you?

TUCKER: Well, I have a great saving grace, thank you, Dr. Shelton in Nashville. He doesn't see patients anymore. He does all research now, but he put me on some medication, Zoloft, and, I tell you what, a lot of people have had pros and cons about it, but it was my wonder drug. I don't do it any longer. It's been a long time since I've done it, but I'd actually start having one, going on a plane, I would just start to freak out. I was going to Tulsa one time, from New York, and I was going to do a show there, and I just knew I was going to have one on the airplane. And I didn't have any medication with me, so, I called my doctor, and he walked me through it. But it's the most horrible feeling. I've never felt anything so horrible in all my years.

KING: Now, Chad, you don't take any medication? Does it work for you?

ALLEN: No, I don't take medication right now. My sister does, although none of it's ever really been all that effective, and I think, to talk about treating the illness of depression, and leave out both the emotional and spiritual component is a recipe for disaster. I think that recovery from...

KING: But if medication would work, you'd take it, wouldn't you?

ALLEN: But I don't think it can only just be medication. To simply, just think that this magic can come in a pill is not even half the battle, and to go through this and not be able to talk about what's going on in the emotional front, it's not going to happen.

KING: Margot, what do you take?

KIDDER: I take a lot of vitamins. I take amino acids. I take minerals. I try and watch my diet. But, I don't take psychiatric medication. I think that the first thing the medical profession should be doing, when they have a depressed patient, is not immediately prescribing the anti-depressant, but rather, trying to find out if there's an organic cause under lying the symptom of depression -- and both mania and depression are symptoms that there's something wrong with your system. There's not a steel plate that separates your head from the rest of your body. So, that's what I do.

Page 1

Page 3