William Styron (1925–2006)

In this intimate memoir of a bout with clinical depression, William Styron (1925-2006) tries to answer the basic question, "How does it feel?", but admits that he cannot: "I was feeling in my mind a sensation close to, but indescribably different from actual pain...[it is] a form of torment...alien to everyday experience." (pp. 16-17). Instead, he chronicles his own battle with the demon by listing the familiar and not so familiar outward signs, including sleeplessness, lack of sexual show more feelings, and altered vocal quality. As his "madness" (his word) progresses, suicidal thoughts became impossible to ignore. Finally, seven weeks in one of the best (unnamed) psychiatric hospitals in the land restore his equilibrium. He ends with a message of hope to other sufferers: depression's "saving grace" is that "it is conquerable".

As the award-winning author of Sophie's Choice and other novels, William Styron led a life of more privilege than most of us experience, but his wealth, fame, and professional standing could not shield him from the mental illness that chased him all his life and finally caught up with him during his sixtieth year. He left behind this short but magnificent document that succeeds as well as anything I've ever read at describing the indescribable. show less

I have never read any literary work by William Styron. The only reason I picked this is because I have a personal interest in mental health -both for having been diagnosed with an illness which included cycles with depressive moods (medication made a radical and potentially life saving difference) and, because I now work as a Carer supporting people some of whom have mental health issues too. You won't need to be either so as to enjoy this book, though. After all, depression can strike show more anybody at anytime; it is, apparently, one of the major health conditions only matched by back pains when it comes to costs to society. His, in its unipolar form, hit him when he was in his early sixties.

They are brilliant insights. If you haven't been there, you cannot know how it feels like -it's not sadness or being down, it's indeed about 'failure of self-esteem... a general feeling of worthlessness' which is both painful and exhausting. It goes beyond a mood. It's an elusive disease which kills.

'Rational thought was usually absent from my mind at such times, hence trance. I can think of no more apposite word for this state of being, a condition of helpless stupor in which cognition was replaced by that "positive and active anguish". And one of the most unendurable aspects of such an interlude was the inability to sleep.'

Roots causes are near impossible to pin down. More likely, there are triggers that will tip you over the edge but won't be the main reason (he personally points to his sudden withdrawal from alcohol). How to treat it is also tricky; we're all different and so will be our needs. This was in the mid-eighties, and it's interesting to see him questioning both psychotherapy and medication as pill-fits-all. The stigma might no longer be as prevalent or so I think (he was advised against being hospitalised for fear it would damage his reputation and career, an advice he thankfully didn't take...). When it comes to thrusting pills as only solution, though, I don't think much have changed:

'Many psychiatrists, who simply do not seem to be able to comprehend the nature and depth of the anguish their patients are undergoing, maintain their stubborn allegiance to pharmaceuticals...'

This is not about denouncing medication (again: depression is a disease and pills do work to a certain extend). It's about acknowledging that many other factors matter for a successful recovery.

calling 'Chin up!' from the safety of the shore to a drowning person is tantamount to insult, but it has been shown over and over again that if the encouragement is dogged enough - and the support equally committed and passionate - the endangered one can nearly always be saved... devotion has prevented countless suicides.'

Being a writer, I also like how he relates to other authors for whom such disease was so intense it had led many to suicide. A link between mood disorders (as chronic conditions) and creativity has been shown. It's interesting to see him pondering on it; although he doesn't offer any explanation as to why this would be the case (this is a first-hand account of a personal experience, not a medical essay).For whose wanting to expand on that I personally recommend Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament .

All in all then, here's a nice testimony of a journey through hell. There are solutions and so it's not hopeless -he made it through, after all. Psychotherapy, medication, circle of support... It goes without saying, but seek help if you show symptoms; and don't brush it off if someone you know gives out signs they might be depressed. It's not about being down. It is, as this short read reminds all too clearly, about preventing death. show less

Long march, short book. I wonder if it’s unfashionable to read Styron these days, noting just one of my GR friends have read this. Or maybe it has other issues: because it’s a war book and who hasn’t read enough of them?

But this one’s different. It has two clear themes running through it. One is war and the army and we hear all the things we expect to. War’s bad. Even if you aren’t actually there, just training. But entwined in this story is the one about a type of person and a show more type of relationship. It’s told as the colonel vs the honest, cynical captain, who is determined to win his personal battle with the colonel by forcing his not competent for the exercise men to get through the long march imposed on them. But it could be any boss with any employee, it’s a story you see every day, the one where the boss is a sort of bully who catches the employee in that attitude of okay, I’m going to do every fucking unreasonable thing you tell me to and that’s going to make me the winner. But the incredibly sad truth is, it doesn’t make the employee the winner. It makes the employer the winner and to make matters worse, he doesn’t even care. He doesn’t even really notice that he’s won. And yet it is so hard not to engage, even though the bully triumphs whatever you do.

This is a marvellous book about such a heroic character who can’t win. It is beautifully told, takes a couple of hours to read. Throughout I had a picture in my head of who would be in the movie. George Rossi. Perfect.

rest here:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2017/08/21/the-long-march-by-william... show less

Subtitled "A Memoir of Madness", this is an expanded version of an essay Styron published in Vanity Fair after recovering from his own bout with a deep clinical depression. His insights into the illness, expressed in his exemplary prose, are enlightening, and much less "depressing" than I had feared when I chose to give this book a try. In the 35 years since Styron wrote it, I devoutly hope recognition, understanding, diagnosis and treatment have taken some significant steps forward. But the show more main take-away for me was that it is possible, even likely, for most sufferers to come out of that darkness, even without excellent treatment, if they manage to wait it out. Tough but valuable reading; if it isn't required of all medical students, let alone psychiatric residents, it should be. show less