After my certification (plus half a year of caring for my cat that is sick with cancer) I moved into some kind of a depressive mood, which got me interested in the topic of depression. Honestly, depression has never been my topic of interest in psychology until recently, when I felt sadder than I usually do.
So I came across this memoir by William Styron. In it he tries to describe his feelings at the time when he descended into deep depression, at the age of sixty, and was consequently hospitalized. He also tells stories of those artists he knew or read about, who suffered from depression and, unfortunately, ended their lives. There was a happy ending to this story
- Styron recovered and wrote this marvelous account. There is some information about his experience with pharmaceutics that is rather dated, I believe, as well as types and forms of depression. What is most valuable for me is the description of his sickness itself that helps to glimpse and better understand what a person experiences during depression. And it’s true that “Cheer up!” won’t help.
While reading it, I caught myself thinking that the majority of writers that deeply impressed me at one point or another, were suffering from some form depression. Maybe it’s not that surprising though, because while reading Clinical Diagnosis by Nancy MacWilliams I self-diagnosed my personality as having a depressive component. After all, they say, it is common for psychotherapists have either depressive or addictive components (or both haha). Maybe reading their stories I felt more understood, being able to share my feelings about life and the world with someone, even if it was through a fictional story.
Highly recommended. And it’s short, I finished it in one day.