A lot of Americans are keeping an important, possibly deadly secret. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that approximately 18.8 million American adults have a depressive disorder. The disease is not discriminating, seeping into all age, race, gender, and socioeconomic groups. Depression stalls careers, strains relationships, and sometimes ends lives.

Depression: Out of the Shadows

The dramatic stories of people of different ages and backgrounds who live with various forms of clinical depression are told in Depression: Out of the Shadows, airing Wednesday, May 21, at 9 p.m. CT on NET1 and repeating Friday, May 23, at 6 p.m. CT on NET2.

The program explores the causes and treatments for depression and offers reasons for hope. It is followed by a 30-minute follow-up panel discussion about depression. The film navigates the disease's complex terrain, highlighting the latest scientific research and innovative treatments. Depression is also explored through the voices of families and individuals coping with the wide-ranging effects of this elusive disorder that ultimately touches everyone.

Personal profiles in the program include a successful public relations executive who found herself sobbing for hours; the successful young leader of a Fortune 500 company who was forced to resign after collapsing from untreated depression; a teenager who became depressed in sixth grade and was found to be suffering from bipolar disorder; a young mother who suffered from post-partum depression and a gang member who became depressed and suicidal after years of neglect, violence and crime.

Depression: Out of the Shadows also features several of the nation's leading mental health experts who explain current theories about the causes of depression and pharmaceutical and counseling treatments that have proven successful.

The half-hour panel discussion following the documentary is hosted by veteran television journalist Jane Pauley who talks candidly about depression with mental health experts. Pauley wrote about having a bipolar disorder in her own autobiography.

Men Get Depression

Also on the evening of Wednesday, May 21, another documentary explores the lives of men as they face the challenge of a disabling illness that can torment them and their families with no regard for age, ethnic origin or walk of life. Men Get Depression airs at 11 p.m. CT on NET1. The program repeats Friday, May 23, at 5 p.m. CT on NET2.

One in four men gets depressed, but most don't look for help. The program examines the reasons for this lack of treatment -- perhaps that men may feel weak or ashamed and that it's not "manly" to feel sad.

A grant was received by the NET Foundation for Television to be used to support outreach activities to address depression, tied to the national broadcast of Depression: Out of the Shadows. NET is one partner in convening "Growing Success: A Statewide Community Summit and Appreciative Inquiry on Effectively Treating Depression," planned for Thursday, June 19, at the NET Television studios at 1800 North 33rd Street in Lincoln. Entertainer and Nebraska native Dick Cavett is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the event. Cavett has suffered from bouts of depression.