Examples Of Depression In Catcher In The Rye

Firstly, one possible disorder Holden could be plagued with is depression. Depression is a mental health disorder characterized by a constantly depressed mood or loss of interest in daily activities. (Goldberg, “Major Depression Symptoms in Adults and Children) It can be impairing to living day to day life, which is apparent in Holden’s case. In several instances throughout the story, Holden mentions how depressed he feels. “I was getting depressed as hell.”, (Salinger, 147) “She was depressing the hell out of me.”, (Salinger, 148) and “It was very depressing.” (Salinger, 18) are some of many, ample examples that appear. Another symptom of depression is hopelessness (Goldberg, “Major Depression Symptoms in Adults and Children), often coming

One milder event representing this is Holden typing Stradlater’s composition about his brother’s baseball mitt as he began to reminisce about all the fun times they had together in Maine. (Salinger, 43) Towards the end of the story, Holden’s health gradually deteriorates and he finds himself hallucinating, actually talking to him. “Every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was taking to my brother Allie.” he says, continuing with, “Allie, don’t let me disappear. Allie, don’t let me

Anxiety is a mental disorder characterized by exaggerated feelings of worry or fear that interfere with daily life. A couple of symptoms of anxiety that Holden exhibits include feeling tense or edgy, being irritable, feeling overly stressed, and having trouble concentrating. (Riley, “Generalized Anxiety Disorder”) Holden’s edginess is expressed by his intense paranoia and distrust of others, calling them phonies practically everywhere in the book. This may also tie in to his irritability, though one extreme event of this is when he says, “I kept wanting to kill whoever’d written it … I kept picturing myself catching him at it, and how I’d smash his head on the stone steps till he was goddam dead and bloody.” (Salinger, 221) A second serious event involving Holden’s anger is when he fought Stradlater over the fact that he probably slept with his childhood friend Jane. He recalls, “I tried to sock him, with all my might … so it would split his goddam throat open.” (Salinger, 49) Holden often has trouble concentrating while talking to others, as his mind tends to wander off into different places. This takes place when Holden is talking to Ackley when he can’t stop thinking about what happened after Stradlater came home. “I just kept laying there on Ely’s bed, thinking about Jane and all.” (Salinger, 55) he says while Ackley is telling him to turn off the lights. This also occurs when Holden is talking to Mr. Antolini, saying, “I didn’t