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Psychology. Nonfiction. HTML:The Noonday Demon is Andrew Solomon's National Book Award-winning, bestselling, and transformative masterpiece on depression�??"the book for a generation, elegantly written, meticulously researched, empathetic, and enlightening" (Time)�??now with a major new chapter covering recently introduced and novel treatments, suicide and anti-depressants, pregnancy and depression, and much more. The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policy makers and politicians, drug designers, and philosophers, Andrew Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease as well as the reasons for hope. He confronts the challenge of defining the illness and describes the vast range of available medications and treatments, and the impact the malady has on various demographic populations�??around the world and throughout history. He also explores the thorny patch of moral and ethical questions posed by biological explanations for mental illness. With uncommon humanity, candor, wit and erudition, award-winning author Solomon takes readers on a journey of incomparable range and resonance into the most pervasive of family secrets. His contribution to our understanding not only of mental illness but also of the human condition is truly… (more)
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Solomon is a story-teller, a scholar, and a great human being. I have no idea how he managed to write this book, but I'm glad he did.
Solomon's discussion of his own experiences and those of people he has been interacting with is heartbreaking. The depth of pain they have experienced is harrowing. It is hard to imagine the mind that turns so much on its owner. As someone who has experienced depression for several years, I've had a taste of this experience. It is almost impossible to express. Solomon's book is perfect for helping put the feelings into words.
That said, I don't believe your average depressed person could swallow this book. It is long, dense, typed small. The tales are legion. I had to stop reading intently and start skimming for fear of being swallowed, and I have to admit my innate rejection of wallowing made me balk at some of his descriptions. I do know despair, and the darkness therein, but I haven't been where he and these people have been, and it is difficult to empathize. Is mental pain worse than bone cancer pain? Can they be equated? How much is "letting things take you down" and how much is a part of the disease?
I think these questions always arise with mental illness, with many other diseases less obvious to the viewer. I have MS and tire of being told that I just need a positive attitude to overcome the muscle spasms and weakness that overcome me daily. I imagine the severely depressed feel the same way.
The discussion of why medications work and how is somewhat muddy and it would behoove anyone on these medications to review them with a qualified pharmacist.
Overall, this is a fantastic reference book to the feelings in depression. Just don't read it on a grey, rainy day when life already seems a bit dingy around the edges...
I highly recommend
While reading, I began to pick up on subtle signs that I have noticed in the case of someone I know who battles depression. I feel that I am more understanding and sympathetic to the bewildering array of symptoms accompanying this disease. I know now things to watch for, and ways to be of assistance without being intrusive. At the same time, the details of the research ongoing to find new and better methods of treatment gives me hope.
This is not a self-help book and the author does not intend this to be a panacea for depressives. However, in reading it, one realizes the scope of the illness and its panoply of effects on those it descends upon and their friends and families. The author resonates hope throughout the work and it is this hope which will infect the reader and offer a glimpse of a possible outcome.
It felt a little self pitying to me, though. I understand that depression puts you in a certain mentality, but I felt as if that mentality was seeping through a lot of times. Yes, I wanted to understand the suffering, but not through the author's wallowing in it the way that he did at times. Not suffering from this myself, I can't confirm or deny the research or the alternative methods he used, but I wasn't coming to this book looking for answers for myself, only to understand the feelings of others. In that, I think the author succeeded rather well.
Depression is pretty common and totally awful for a whole slew of reasons.
TL;DR Review
Uncomfortably relateable, but with comforting amounts of information pulled from a variety of sources and filtered through many different lenses.
Review
If you've ever wondered how depression affects
Despite the amount of information provided and the potentially devastating subject, I never felt confused or overwhelmed. NAME excels at presenting all of his information clearly and weaving others' opinions with his own words in such a way that never leaves the reader confused. And I never felt crushed by the weight of the topic, even while experiencing a mild depressive episode myself. (Because I chose to read this in the middle of winter -- my hardest season -- like a dummy.)
If you suffer from depression, read this book. If you have a loved one in your life who suffers from depression, read this book. If you are at all interested in the psychology of or global impact of depression, read this book. It is a real treasure.
The only complaint I can level at this work is that is seems the author couldn't figure out to what extent he was writing a biography, to what extent a polemic and to what extent a textbook, though that last may not be the proper term. He seems to be trying to give himself "street cred" in this area, if that makes sense. As in, yes I come from a privelged background and am a writer for many popular and prestigious...but I'm as bad off as some poor slob who's spent half his life shuffling between state hospitals and community treatment. Not necessary, and slightly distracting from the overall superb work done.
Oh, and the author's photo is disturbing. He looks like Lon Chaney with a bad tan.
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