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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by AKC on July 5, 2001, at 21:15:36
Here is a book recommendation - a book by Andrew Solomon, subtitled "An Atlas of Depression." I should wait until I have read more than the first 33 pages to recommend it. But here is an early passage that touched me deeply that I think is an indication of the talent of this writer. To set-up the passage, the writer has likened depression to a vine that sufficates the life out of a tree (his life) to the point that the vine itself is the life for the tree --
"I will be in treatment for depression for a long time. I wish I could say how it happened. I have no idea how I fell so low, and little sense of how I bounced up or fell again, and again, and again. I treated the presence, the vine, in every conventional way I could find, then figured out how to repair the absence as laboriously yet intuitively as I learned to walk or talk. I had many slight lapses, then two serious breakdowns, then a rest, then a third breakdown, and then a few more lapses. After all that, I do what I have to do to avoid further disturbances. Every morning and every night, I look at the pills in my hand: white, pink, red, turquoise. Sometimes they seem like writing in my hand, hieroglyphics saying that the future may be all right and that I owe it to myself to live on and see. I feel sometimes as though I am swallowing my own funeral twice a day, since without these pills, I'd be long gone. I go to see my therapist once a week when I'm at home. I am sometimes bored by our seessions and sometimes interested in an entirely dissociative way and sometimes have a feeling of epiphany. In part, from the things this man said, I rebuilt myself enough to be able to keep swallowing my funeral instead of enacting it. A lot of talking was involved: I believe that words are strong, that they can overwhelm what we fear when fear seems more awful than life is good. I have turned, with an increasingly fine attention, to love. Love is the other way forward. They need to go together: by themselves pills are a weak poison, love a blunt knife, insight a rope that snaps under too much strain. With the lot of them, if you are lucky, you can save the tree from the vine." (page 30)
I hope you find this as meaningful as I did.
AKC
Posted by Marie1 on July 6, 2001, at 8:13:08
In reply to The Noonday Demon, posted by AKC on July 5, 2001, at 21:15:36
This does sound like someone who's "walked the walk". I really relate to his description of his therapy sessions. About once a month I start thinking - Why am I doing this? Then I have one of those epiphanies that he refers to. I am especially interested in how/why psychotherapy works and different techniques and so on. will you let me know if he goes into much detail re: his therapy? Thanks.
Marie
Posted by AKC on July 6, 2001, at 8:26:21
In reply to Re: The Noonday Demon » AKC, posted by Marie1 on July 6, 2001, at 8:13:08
> will you let me know if he goes into much detail re: his therapy? Thanks.
Will do - but be warned - I am reading this before bed each night, and with my med combo right now, it may take me a few months to make much progress! :-)
Posted by Noa on July 6, 2001, at 15:20:48
In reply to Re: The Noonday Demon » Marie1, posted by AKC on July 6, 2001, at 8:26:21
The name of the author sounds vaguely familiar. Is it possible I read an excerpt in the New Yorker a couple of years ago? If so, he was the one who talked about psychopharm treatment as like a game of darts, and quoted Chekhov saying something about how you can tell if something can be cured or not because the things that can't be cured have a lot more treatments. And, he described going to a support group meeting and suddenly realizing how depressing it was to sit among a group of depressed people. Anyway, don't know if it is the same author. Kind of hope it is.
Thanks for the rec--I'll look for it.
Posted by Willow on July 6, 2001, at 22:25:52
In reply to Re: The Noonday Demon » Marie1, posted by AKC on July 6, 2001, at 8:26:21
> Will do - but be warned - I am reading this before bed each night, and with my med combo right now, it may take me a few months to make much progress! :-)Got a good chuckle!
Willow
ps it got on the board before I could help. cyberkinesis?
Posted by Lorraine on July 9, 2001, at 12:30:01
In reply to Re: The Noonday Demon, posted by Noa on July 6, 2001, at 15:20:48
I have been reading this book as well and have to say that I love it. It is very intellectual--which appeals to me. The author is smart, well educated, pretty wealthy, gay and depressed. The first two or three chapters, where he describes his own depression made me cry repeatedly because his descriptions were "dead on". I don't agree with everything he says--he is too willing to go down that "is depression a disease when almost everyone has it" road. But that wouldn't bother me if the book weren't being read by "outsiders". I enjoyed his stuff on depression in different cultures, different treatments and so forth. He has tried a bunch of different treatments and gives his take on them. Pretty much endorses EMR (that eye movement thing for PSTD). The history section was a bit dull. But all in all a very good read. It's just in hardback so see if you can get it from the library or used.
This is the end of the thread.
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