Some who have suffered from depression include Beethoven, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Judy Garland, Claude Monet, Norman Rockwell, and Edgar Allen Poe. Of course, depression is not the only tragic affliction. We certainly would consider dyslexia to be a tragic affliction. Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Albert Einstein had this affliction. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Pablo Picasso had it as well.
Tragic afflictions show up in many forms.
Continual abuse or a dysfunctional family life can be just as much of an affliction as a disease. Poverty afflicted many. Slavery afflicted others. Bad marriages and even noble stations in life were afflictions. Having more than one affliction was not uncommon as was the case of Beethoven who not only struggled with depression but was also afflicted with deafness in his later years.