If you have ever "been there" you may already know what lays behind the cold medical statement, "clinical depression." Depression is a widespread mood disorder that ruins the lives of at least ten percent of the U.S. population, or more than 20 million people! I suspect that this percentage is much higher, since only those that submit to lifelong pharmaceutical treatment are included in these sad statistics. Depression is, indeed, a torment. It sucks out energy, happiness, the desire to socialize, create, love and give. It is a slow, cruel killer that transforms living into a bland and incomprehensible desert. It is known that women suffer from depressive episodes twice as often as do men - another injustice imposed by the natural forces which shape our cyclic hormonal realities.