full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Andrew Solomon: Depression, the secret we share

Unscramble the Blue Letters

One of the people I talked to when I was trying to understand this was a beolevd ferind who I had known for many years, and who had had a psychotic edsipoe in her freshman year of college, and then plummeted into a horrific depression. She had bipolar illness, or manic dsrseoepin, as it was then known. And then she did very well for many years on lithium, and then evaluelnty, she was taken off her lithium to see how she would do without it, and she had another psychosis, and then plunged into the worst depression that I had ever seen in which she sat in her parents' apartment, more or less catatonic, essentially without mvinog, day after day after day. And when I interviewed her about that experience some years later — she's a poet and psychotherapist named Maggie rinobbs — when I interviewed her, she said, "I was singing 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone,' over and over, to occupy my mind. I was singing to blot out the things my mind was saying, which were, 'You are nothing. You are nobody. You don't even deserve to live.' And that was when I really satetrd thinking about killing myself."

Open Cloze

One of the people I talked to when I was trying to understand this was a _______ ______ who I had known for many years, and who had had a psychotic _______ in her freshman year of college, and then plummeted into a horrific depression. She had bipolar illness, or manic __________, as it was then known. And then she did very well for many years on lithium, and then __________, she was taken off her lithium to see how she would do without it, and she had another psychosis, and then plunged into the worst depression that I had ever seen in which she sat in her parents' apartment, more or less catatonic, essentially without ______, day after day after day. And when I interviewed her about that experience some years later — she's a poet and psychotherapist named Maggie _______ — when I interviewed her, she said, "I was singing 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone,' over and over, to occupy my mind. I was singing to blot out the things my mind was saying, which were, 'You are nothing. You are nobody. You don't even deserve to live.' And that was when I really _______ thinking about killing myself."

Solution

  1. beloved
  2. episode
  3. moving
  4. friend
  5. depression
  6. eventually
  7. robbins
  8. started

Original Text

One of the people I talked to when I was trying to understand this was a beloved friend who I had known for many years, and who had had a psychotic episode in her freshman year of college, and then plummeted into a horrific depression. She had bipolar illness, or manic depression, as it was then known. And then she did very well for many years on lithium, and then eventually, she was taken off her lithium to see how she would do without it, and she had another psychosis, and then plunged into the worst depression that I had ever seen in which she sat in her parents' apartment, more or less catatonic, essentially without moving, day after day after day. And when I interviewed her about that experience some years later — she's a poet and psychotherapist named Maggie Robbins — when I interviewed her, she said, "I was singing 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone,' over and over, to occupy my mind. I was singing to blot out the things my mind was saying, which were, 'You are nothing. You are nobody. You don't even deserve to live.' And that was when I really started thinking about killing myself."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
feel sad 5
frank russakoff 3
orange dust 3
chemical cure 2
great deal 2
worst depression 2
maggie robbins 2
people talk 2
electroshock treatment 2
poor people 2
feel miserable 2

Important Words

  1. apartment
  2. beloved
  3. bipolar
  4. blot
  5. catatonic
  6. college
  7. day
  8. depression
  9. deserve
  10. episode
  11. essentially
  12. eventually
  13. experience
  14. flowers
  15. freshman
  16. friend
  17. horrific
  18. illness
  19. interviewed
  20. killing
  21. lithium
  22. live
  23. maggie
  24. manic
  25. mind
  26. moving
  27. named
  28. occupy
  29. people
  30. plummeted
  31. plunged
  32. poet
  33. psychosis
  34. psychotherapist
  35. psychotic
  36. robbins
  37. sat
  38. singing
  39. started
  40. talked
  41. thinking
  42. understand
  43. worst
  44. year
  45. years