At first, the fight was pointless, Knights felt. He didn’t know how to win, how to beat his depression.

More than 300 million people are estimated to have depression worldwide, accounting for almost 5% of the population, though some experts believe that rates are higher.

For half of people, one episode is all they’ll experience. But after three or more, these episodes are 90% more likely to become recurrent. This was the case for Knights.

When an episode hits, a feeling of inevitability sets in, says Knights, and he heads deeper down this road on which he must fight himself, with symptoms taking further hold.