Depression

One of the most accurate, and therefore most harrowing, accounts of depression to be written in the last century...Ms. Merkin speaks candidly and beautifully about aspects of the human condition that usually remain pointedly silent (John Kaag,The Wall Street Journal).

Having suffered the dark weight of depression for most of her life, the author decided to write a collection of reminder notes to herself in an effort to reduce the stress. Eventually this attempt at self-help became the collection of dialogues that make up this book.

Do antidepressants actually work, or are they just glorified dummy pills? How can we tell one way or the other?

What if depression could lead to positive change?

When Jenny Lawson is anxious, one of the things she does is to draw. Elaborate doodles, beautiful illustrations, often with captions that she posts online. At her signings, fans show up with printouts of these drawings for Jenny to autograph. And inevitably they ask her when will she publish a whole book of them. That moment has arrived.

This Close to Happy is the rare, vividly personal account of what it feels like to suffer from clinical depression, written from a woman's perspective and informed by an acute understanding of the implications of this disease over a lifetime.

Depression confuses the mind, strips away hope, and causes people to blame themselves for an illness they never asked for. Right now, the whole concept of depression is being reexamined and recognized to form a spectrum of problems, from common depression on one end to full bipolar disorder on the other.