What does it mean: 'to have the black dog on one�s back'?

[njura]

What does it mean: 'to have the black dog on one�s back'?

[smudge]

I know Churchill used to suffer from depression & called it the 'black dog', I don't know if that has any bearing on your saying though.

[Mr.Ix]

I recall an old legend that went along the lines of , if you saw a black dog it was a portent of Death.

[Gratia]

Might have something to do with this myth. Black Dogs In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hounds of the Baskervilles, he describes a black dog, just like the ones that appear in British legends. "...there stood a foul thing, a great black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon." It is said, in legend, that if one spied, or spoke to one of these large dogs (the size of a calf or larger) he was bound to die. They are also known to have eyes that shine in the dark. In Scotland, tales of the cu sith, or f�rie hound was also known to foretell death or illness.

[Moog]

It refers to being prone to bouts of depression

[andy hughes]

It's a mixture of two images - the 'black dog' as decribed, and 'the monkey on your back' which is used to describe a drug addiction, usually heroin.