black dog
noun
A metaphorical representation of melancholy or depression: I may still have a black dog in me, but I manage to keep him corralled I’m happy but the black dogs are there, lurking round the corner...
- Even in my darkest hours, when the black dog of depression settles on my normally sunny countenance, I console myself with sympathetic thoughts of those even worse off than myself.
- In Australia there has recently been recognition of the black dog of depression since several politicians and judges confessed to suffering from it.
- ‘I gotta work my way away from the black dog of depression daily,’ he said at the time.
Origin
Late 18th century (earlier as a name used during Queen Anne's reign for a bad shilling). Winston Churchill used the expression when alluding to his periodic bouts of depression.