Living with Depression: Why Biology and Biography Matter along the Path to Hope and Healing

208 Pages·2011·3.23 MB·English

LIVING WITH
DEPRESSION
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9781442210585.indb i 4/13/11 9:55 AM
LIVING WITH
DEPRESSION
Why Biology and Biography
Matter along the Path to
Hope and Healing
Deborah Serani
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
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Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2011 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and
retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except
by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Serani, Deborah, 1961–
Living with depression : why biology and biography matter along the
path to hope and healing / Deborah Serani.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-1056-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-1058-5
(electronic)
1. Serani, Deborah, 1961– —Mental health. 2. Postpartum depression—
Patients—United States—Biography. I. Title.
RG852.S47 2011
618.7'6—dc22
2011010059
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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For my daughter, Rebecca
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Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma
and bias shame us all.
—William Jefferson Clinton
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CONTENTS
1 MY DEPRESSION 1
2 UNDERSTANDING DEPRESSION 17
3 TREATMENTS FOR DEPRESSION 31
4 THE INSIDE TRACK 45
5 YOUR DEPRESSION 63
6 THE 5 R’S 75
7 PREVENTING SUICIDE 85
8 UNDERSTANDING STIGMA 95
9 LIVING WITH DEPRESSION 107
APPENDIX A HIGH-PROFILE PEOPLE
WITH MOOD DISORDERS 115
APPENDIX B RESOURCES 129
NOTES 145
GLOSSARY 187
INDEX 195
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 199
v i i
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1
MY DEPRESSION
Dad’s gun is in the left hand drawer of his dresser, I thought to myself.
It was there for protection and it was always loaded. My father was
good that way—always having the right tools for the right circum-
stances.
The last time I fired his single action semiautomatic pistol was at
the outdoor firing range in Farmingdale as a young teenager. From
time to time, he’d take me and my sisters there, or to the indoor gun
range at Marine Headquarters in Garden City, to learn how to han-
dle guns and shoot with confidence. I recall how he placed the foam
green earmuffs on my head and balanced the yellow-tinted aviator
glasses on the bridge of my nose. Both were too big for my frame,
but they worked nonetheless. The glasses sharpened my visual acu-
ity, making the target crisp with clarity, and the earmuffs muted
the thunderous sound as I pulled the trigger. I was a good shooter,
especially with a handgun.
“You have a good eye,” my dad often said.
One time, I hit the paper target with such precision at the indoor
range that I took it home and tacked it on the inside door of my
closet. I was so proud.
Growing up around rifles, pistols, and bullets made me keenly
aware of all the rules of gun use. Always keep the gun pointed away
1
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