If you're feeling depressed, crazy, or just down and out, you're not alone. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, what's behind the national epidemic of depression. Meet writer Jim Knipfel, who has battled blindness and suicidal depression, and emerged with a wicked sense of humor.

Jim Knipfel is a columnist for the New York Press and the author of "Slackjaw." He tells Steve Paulson what it was like in the bad old days when his depression, rages and worsening blindness made life unendurable. He also explains how he turned his life around, and how he manages now.

Newspaper editor David Awbrey was hit with depression ten years ago. He tells Jim Fleming that Prozac helped, but he wanted more. Awbrey studied the history of melancholy and concluded depression is a social epidemic. He calls his book "Finding Hope in the Age of Melancholy." Also, Daniel Menaker is an editor at Random House and the author of "The Treatment." He tells Steve Paulson about the psychiatrist at the center of his novel - "an insane, body-building, blackbearded, Cuban, Catholic Freudian" - who does manage to help his hapless patient.

Mark Epstein is a psychiatrist and the author of "Going to Pieces without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness." He tells Steve Paulson that psychotherapy could learn a lot from Buddhism. Also, Alice McDermott, whose novel "Charming Billy" won the National Book Award, tells Jim Fleming that her book is about an Irish- American who allows his life to be shaped by a lie, and the effects it has on him, his friends, and family.

Distribution dates:

• week of 03/12/2000 - hour 2
• week of 03/28/99 - hour 1