精英人員更應警惕患上抑鬱症大綱

Every suicide is intensely sad — a despairing act of self-harm that leaves a legacy of guilt and sorrow for the victim’s family, friends and colleagues. That of Martin Senn, chief executive of Zurich Insurance until last December, is doubly resonant because it follows the suicide of Pierre Wauthier, Zurich’s chief financial officer, three years ago.

每起自殺事件都令人感到極度悲痛，這種絕望的自裁給逝者的家人、朋友及同事留下無盡的內疚和傷痛。沈文天(Martin Senn)——去年12月之前一直擔任蘇黎世保險(Zurich Insurance)首席執行官——的自殺帶來的傷痛更令人刻骨銘心，因爲三年前，該公司首席財務官皮埃爾•沃蒂耶(Pierre Wauthier)也用自殺的方式結束了自己的生命。

Senn, who killed himself at his Klosters holiday home last Friday, is said to have struggled to adjust to being no longer the boss of a Swiss multinational. He agreed to step down after Zurich failed to acquire the UK insurer RSA last year, and faced problems in the US and China. The company is now restructuring and cutting costs.

5月末，沈文天在自己位於瑞士克洛斯特斯(Klosters)的度假屋自殺，據稱他一直難以適應卸任這家瑞士跨國公司掌門人後的生活。去年，在蘇黎世保險收購英國保險公司RSA未果、並在美國和中國遇到問題之後，沈文天同意辭去首席執行官之職。目前，該公司正在進行重組及削減成本。

My reaction to his death is influenced by having suffered an episode of depression a decade ago. “Suffered” is the correct word, as anyone who has been through the experience can testify. “Episode” is the term employed by psychiatrists, as if it forms part of a rather painful soap opera. Luckily, my pilot episode did not turn into a series.

十年前，我曾忍受過一段抑鬱症的折磨，這段經歷影響了我對沈文天自殺的反應。用“忍受折磨”一詞形容很恰當，任何有過此種經歷的人都可以證實這一點。“一段”(episode，也指連續劇的“一集”——譯者注)是精神科醫生使用的術語，好像這是一部悲慘肥皂劇的組成部分。幸運的是，我的抑鬱症沒有復發。

It made me alert to the malaise, though. When I hear of senior executives resigning or taking a break from their work because they are experiencing “sleeplessness”, “burnout”, “exhaustion”, or some other corporate euphemism for anxiety and depression, I recall what it taught me.

不過，那段經歷讓我對這種疾病有了警惕性。當聽說有高管因“失眠”、“疲憊”、“精疲力竭”（或是企業對焦慮、抑鬱的一些其他委婉說法）而辭職或者休假時，我總會回想起那段經歷給我帶來的教訓。

One lesson is the common nature of mood disorder in the boardroom. It is tempting to view the Zurich Insurance suicides as a unique and alien tragedy, akin to the “virgin suicides” in the 1993 novel by Jeffrey Eugenides — the story of five sisters who kill themselves, narrated by a chorus of admirers.

教訓之一是，情緒障礙(mood disorder)在董事會成員中非常普遍。人們很容易將蘇黎世保險兩名高管先後自殺視爲一場罕見、陌生的悲劇，類似於傑佛瑞•尤金尼德斯(Jeffrey Eugenides)1993年小說中的“少女之死”（那部小說是由多名仰慕者講述的五姐妹自殺的故事）。

But even the official estimates suggest that every board of directors is likely to contain at least one person with an experience of depression. In 2014, 7 per cent of US adults reported having a major episode in the past year; 16 per cent are diagnosed with depression at least once in their lifetimes.

但連官方估計都暗示，每個董事會都可能至少有一位有過抑鬱經歷的成員。2014年，7%的美國成年人稱在過去一年經歷過較嚴重的抑鬱期；16%的美國成年人一生中至少有一次被診斷爲患有抑鬱症。

This may be an underestimate for directors and executives, if anecdote is reliable. I know several who went through depression without admitting it, including a partner in a City of London firm and one government minister. Then there was a FTSE 100 chief executive who was charismatic at work but lay in a darkened room at home.

如果傳聞可信的話，對董事和高管而言，這一比例或許低估了。我就知道好幾位患過抑鬱症卻不願承認的高管，包括倫敦金融城(City of London)一家公司的合夥人以及一名內閣大臣。還有一名富時100(FTSE 100)成分股公司首席執行官——工作時神采飛揚，但回家就躺在黑暗的房間裏。

Therein lies a second lesson: rising to great heights in your career, as did Senn and Wauthier, may mean you are more vulnerable. Depression is not an elite disorder — it is widespread and many aspects of the lives of the less privileged and lower paid can precipitate mental illness. But exceptional achievement carries its own peculiar risks.

從這之中可以得到第二個教訓：像沈文天、沃蒂耶這樣走上職業生涯巔峯可能意味着你會變得更脆弱。抑鬱症並非精英特有的疾患——它分佈廣泛，弱勢及低收入羣體在生活中遇到的許多事情，都會讓人突然患上這種心理疾病。但非凡的成就帶有其特有的風險。

Workaholism is among them. Wauthier’s widow recalled that, “Usually he had seven hours’ sleep and the rest of the time it was BlackBerry in one hand, laptop in the other”, and that he was under heavy pressure. That is not unusual in a job like his, or at professional services firms that charge so much they are at clients’ beck and call.

“工作狂”就是其中之一。沃蒂耶的遺孀回憶道，“他通常只睡七個小時，其餘時間都是一手拿着黑莓(BlackBerry)，一手拿着筆記本電腦”，他承受着巨大的壓力。這種狀況對他這樣的職位而言並非罕見，對那些收費高昂、因此對客戶有求必應的專業人士而言也很常見。

One recent study of Norwegian employees found that the “workaholics”of the sample had higher levels of anxiety and depression. Thirty-four per cent of them met the medical criteria for anxiety, compared with 12 per cent of those who did not overwork.

一項對挪威僱員的最新研究發現，樣本人羣中的“工作狂”員工比其他人更焦慮、更抑鬱。在工作狂員工中，有34%達到了醫學上的焦慮症標準，相比之下，這一比例在非工作狂員工中僅爲12%。

Cause and effect are not clear — do you become anxious by overworking, or do anxious people overwork? Anxiety can be adaptive, as psychiatrists would phrase it, up to a point: it helps people to achieve professional success. But it also makes them subject to hazard.

是加班讓你變得焦慮，還是焦慮的員工更喜歡加班——其中的因果關係並不明確。正如精神病學家所言，在一定程度之內，焦慮是自我調適的結果：它可以幫助人們取得事業上的成功，但也會讓人們處於危險之中。

High-flyers risk the fate of Icarus, the original high-flyer of the Greek myth, whose wings came apart when he flew too close to the sun. Some attain middle age without facing serious setbacks in life — they studied at elite schools and universities and have flourished in professions. When they finally encounter failure, it is a terrible shock.

一路高飛的成功人士有重蹈伊卡洛斯(Icarus)覆轍的危險——這位希臘神話中的人物是最早的“高飛者”，他飛得太靠近太陽，身上的蠟翼融化，因而墜落。有些成功人士一路就讀於精英中小學和大學，在職場上也成就斐然，因而沒有遇到過嚴重挫折就進入了中年。當最終遭遇挫敗時，對他們的打擊是巨大的。

After such success, it is natural to believe your life is charmed, and to flounder when you abruptly discover that you are as fallible as everyone else. Enoch Powell, the British politician, observed that all political lives end in failure. That is equally true of business lives: most of those who reach the top of the professional pyramid as chief executive do not stay there long.

在人生取得此般成功之後，他們自然會相信自己的人生受到了上天的眷顧，但當突然發現自己與其他人一樣可能犯錯時，他們自然會手足無措。英國政治家伊諾克•鮑威爾(Enoch Powell)說，所有政治生涯的結局都是失敗。商業生涯也同樣如此：多數到達職業金字塔頂端的首席執行官都不會在這一位置呆很久。

Some accept this but it triggers in others a biological reaction that causes depression. The distress is often temporary, though. A setback does not end a career; an episode need not become a series. Depression can be chronic but midlife crises are often one-offs.

有些人可以接受這一現實，其他人則會產生引發抑鬱的生物反應。儘管如此，苦悶往往是短暫的。一次挫折不會終結一個人的職業生涯；一時的抑鬱未必會演變成長期、反覆發作的抑鬱症。抑鬱症可能難以根除，但中年危機往往只發作一次。

More companies now recognise these truths and are better prepared to support employees in difficulty. The stigma has lessened although the number of those who choose not to speak up shows that it lingers. That worsens the pain and risks catastrophe.

現在，越來越多的企業認識到了這些問題，而且在幫助陷入抑鬱的員工方面做了更充足的準備。抑鬱症不再是奇恥大辱，但依然有那麼多人選擇隱瞞自己患有抑鬱症的事實，這表明恥辱感依然存在。對抑鬱症感到羞恥加劇了患者的痛苦，而且可能引發災難性後果。

“How is your mood?” psychiatrists tend to ask patients affected by depression. Bad then but good now, is my answer. This is why the Zurich Insurance suicides are so sad. What feels hopeless at one moment later fades into history. Life can recover and fulfilment return, if you stick around.

精神病學家經常會詢問抑鬱症患者：“你的心情怎麼樣？”我的回答是，過去不好，但現在不錯。這就是爲什麼蘇黎世保險高管自殺如此令人悲痛的原因。一時的絕望在過後看來都如同過往雲煙。生活可以重頭再來，成就可以重新創造——只要你好好活着。