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Sixteen years after the release of her first hit record, Shawn Colvin has three Grammy awards, a healthy 7-year-old daughter and almost as many triathlons to her name as she has albums.

But taking stock, while on a break from a grueling summer tour that has her in Salt Lake City tonight and 19 other cities this month, Colvin said nothing of her enduring talent - preferring instead to talk about an abiding sadness.

For this soulful singer and songwriter, "the blues" is more than just a musical genre. The fortysomething songstress suffers from clinical depression, which she has battled most of her life. She went public about her illness roughly a year ago, but continues to use her tours to raise awareness about its symptoms and treatment.

"I hate to think people are suffering because they're reluctant to get help," said Colvin.

Joined by actresses Brooke Shields and Linda Hamilton of "Terminator" fame, Colvin isn't the first high-profile spokeswoman for depression. Nor is she bound to be the last.

Though it affects an estimated 14 million Americans, major depressive disorder continues to be largely misunderstood and underdiagnosed - in part, Colvin said, because people stigmatize it as a personal failure or romanticize it as a mark of creative genius.

"You get a lot of, 'Snap out of it. You're just in a bad mood.' Or people fear if you're the artistic type, medication will erode your creative personality," said Colvin.

Colvin recalls having dark thoughts as young as age 4 or 5, but wasn't diagnosed with anxiety disorder and depression until she was 19 and literally paralyzed by terror and hopelessness.

"I could hardly leave the house. I wasn't eating or sleeping," said Colvin. "I shut the world out. Even the smallest tasks were overwhelming."

Medication worked when she took it. But often she would turn to alcohol. For a period of time, her sense of powerlessness manifested as an eating disorder.

By the time she won her first Grammy for the 1989 album "Steady On," Colvin was deep in despair and suicidal.

Therapy and exercise have helped her come to terms with problems stemming from her depression, but she says the medication she takes was her key to recovery.

"Along with the hopelessness, there's a self-judgment component. You start to turn it in on yourself. Coupled with the negative feedback you're getting from friends and family, it all starts to mesh until you're in a hole too deep; you can't see the way out," said Colvin.

Rhonda Lehr, psychiatric director at the Woman's Health Center in Ogden, says Colvin's experience is typical.

People are slow to seek help because depression isn't something "you can see or measure with a blood test," said Lehr, stressing that for 80 percent of those diagnosed, the condition is treatable.

The disorder is believed to be connected to an imbalance in brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. It is marked by symptoms of diminished pleasure, weight changes or appetite loss, insomnia, agitation, lethargy, suicidal thoughts and trouble concentrating.

Lehr says even once people are prescribed a medication, 30 percent to 50 percent stop taking it because they start to feel better or don't like the side effects.

But with medical advances, today's drugs have fewer and fewer side effects, said Lehr. She compares depression to a heart condition or asthma, illnesses that may require lifelong intervention.

"If you don't, your brain changes. It literally shrinks. I like to say, 'It's not your fault. But it's your responsibility to treat it,' " she says.

Colvin identifies with the reluctance to pop a pill and is unshaken by actor Tom Cruise's recent anti-psychiatry harangue.

"He has done us all an odd service by bringing the issue of mental health to the forefront," said Colvin.

"When I was depressed beyond functioning, that wasn't me. That voice that says everything is black, useless and there's nothing to look forward to, that's not me," said Colvin. "All the work I've done since 1990 was while I was on anti-depressants. It's not go smell the flowers work or a fairyland. But the meds restored me. They gave me myself back."

Shawn Colvin and John Hiatt play Red Butte

Join Shawn Colvin and John Hiatt for a night of genre-defying music sure to touch on folk, country, rock and blues over the course of a couple of hours. Colvin is taking time off from recording a new album (scheduled for release in early 2006) to tour. Hiatt is touring in support of his new "Master of Disaster" album, recorded in Memphis' legendary Ardent Studios with members of the North Mississippi All-Stars. Hiatt and Colvin play at 7 p.m. at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City. Tickets are $29, $14 for kids 2 to 14, and are available at all Ticketmaster outlets.