Thank God for antidepressants!: A personal journey to contentment

My book is unique in today's book market on the subject of depression & the taking of antidepressants. Why is that? Because I am writing from the perspective of one who is actually taking antidepressants, and has done so for a long time. It's my personal story, not a professional take on the subject. I have no medical training whatsoever. However, my book has been vetted by two psychotherapists and a psychiatrist, to be sure that it is not misleading in any way. I am a mother of four and a grandmother of five, and my struggle was a journey of twenty-seven years. I'm definitely not handing out a ten point recipe for success. I want people to feel understood, able to hold their heads up and walk tall. It's like a conversation with the reader. Aimed at people who struggle with depression &/or medication in any way, and those who wish to understand them or have to live with them! I have written for anyone who is in that situation, but, being a Christian, I do look at the vexed question of healing & the struggle that produced in me. Several friends and family members read it who are not Christians & told me that they really liked it in spite of "the parts that could have annoyed them" as one person put it. I wrote my book in response to a number of people who have told me conspiratorially "I take antidepressants too" like it was some guilty secret. I have had numerous occasions to share snippets in conversations or even sermons, but I felt it would be helpful to put it all down in one piece. I wrote for the sheer joy of writing, & to be a help to others. As Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel says : "No-one is as capable of gratitude as the one who has emerged from the shadows. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, and every hour a gift. Not to share them would be to betray them." I write from an understanding of the personal challenges of long-term medication and the fall-out on family relationships and personal identity. Thank God for antidepressants is about such questions as... - How did I get here? - Where does depression come from? - To take, or not to take anti-depressants? - Why do people treat me differently? - Do the meds make me a different person? - Which side-effects can I live with, or not? - What about Psychotherapy? - Am I a second class citizen? - Where is God in all that? - What do we tell the children? My book is about finding hope, joy and peace in spite of still taking antidepressants.