The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

(Lots of notes inflate the page count. Don't be intimidated; read this book.)

The first thing of concrete value that I am getting out of this is the importance of staying on your medications, if you take them. We may need to change the cocktail, we may need to take mini 'vacations', but don't taper off, and def. don't quit. We're basically messing with our brains, our most valuable parts of our bodies, and we don't want to make things even worse with cyclic treatments. The author explains it much better, more convincingly... I just wanted to tell us *now* in case any of us were thinking about trying to make a go of it with less medication.
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Once in awhile the author misses the point. For example, he does acknowledge that he has very show more good insurance and an incredible network of supportive friends and family. But he also characterizes those of us who use St. John's Wort as choosing it because it's 'natural.' No, we choose it because we can get it discretely, without prescription, without significant expense.
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I think I appreciate that the book is long. It's more readable than some non-fiction because it actually develops each concept, instead of racing on to the next; it doesn't try to engage us in 'turning pages' or staying up all night reading. Chapters and paragraphs are relatively long, too. Yet it's remarkably readable.
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I really appreciate the analysis of Populations. For example, when men are depressed, they're more likely to find that "depression can easily erupt as rage" and therefore we can suspect that many wife batterers and others are misdiagnosed. Also, the higher rate of depression in women can be viewed many ways and also through many interpretive lenses. Is it real? Is it a matter of over-reporting? Or, possibly, under-reporting? Is is sociological, because there are women are still disenfranchised and who feel less powerful, less able to speak out? Is it hormonal? And what about children? What about the fact that children whose mother is mildly depressed often suffer more than one is severely depressed? (Lots of other populations are explored, too. Fascinating.)
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At this point I started to read more lightly. I find it counter-productive to my health to read about Addictions or Politics.... But I did page through the entire book and am amazed by the wealth of wisdom and insight here.

Some more bookdart marked bits:

"[T]he depression itself lives forever in the cipher of my brain. It is part of me. To wage war on depression is to fight against oneself."
"You need to be reborn after a severe episode."
"'Medicines treat depression,' my therapist said to me, 'I treat depressives."

I need to look for 'Undercurrents' by Martha Manning.

"[D]epression can easily erupt as rage." (Theorized as a likely influence on lots of men who abuse their wives and families. I believe it. And I believe that the sentence passed against them should include therapy to address this root of their rage... I am confident it would be cost-effective as well as humane.)

The author says that he (or anyone) should be allowed to suicide at the point at which he "accurately believe[s] that the amount of joy left in [his] life can not exceed the amount of sorrow or pain." (I have a bit of trouble with that. I believe that to be true of my life now, but do not consider myself suicidal. I suspect there are a *lot* of people resigned to living with rare bits of joy, no?)
When looking for a suicide note or another reason, remember that the victim acted because s/he was suicidal. Period. The reason is never enough to actually explain, after all, consider all those people with even more trauma in their lives who cling to life.

Remember that different people have different symptoms and need different treatments and therapies. As the physician Sir William Osler said, "Don't tell what type of disease the patient has, tell me what type of patient has the disease!"

"If depressed people... simply stay at home or disappear, their invisibility makes them easy to ignore." But again, it's more likely to be cost-effective is our social nets extended to them and helped them to become productive citizens... because at some point it's likely that they will manifest, somehow, in the public sphere....

"Depression exaggerates character. In the long run, I think, it makes good people better; it makes bad people worse. It can destroy one's sense of proportion and give one paranoid fantasies and a false sense of helplessness; but it is also a window onto truth."
"By seeing [in popular psychology textbooks, for example] how many kinds of resilience and strength and imagination are to be found, one can appreciate not only the horror of depression but also the complexity of human vitality." "[T]rue survivors have compelling stories."

"The ailing me is not more or less an authentic self; the therapized me is not more or less an authentic self."
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An amazing book, yes. Read it. Especially if you are depressive but currently feeling well. Or if you love or employ a depressed person. Or if you have any influence on public policy or health care or are a provider. Or if you've loved 'Hyperbole and a Half' by Brosh, or Haig's 'Reasons to Stay Alive.' show less

Noonday Demon is Andrew Solomon's amazing memoir / history of depression - it's a must-read for anyone who wants to delve deeply into the causes and effects of depression. Solomon begins with his own journey through several severe depressive episodes. For a broader personal understanding of depression, he intermittently includes stories of "depressives" that he's interviewed. In his research for this book, Solomon explored many standard therapies for depression (i.e. medicine, psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, etc.); but he also explored some very atypical therapies such as an African ritual in which he lay naked and covered in goat blood while people danced around him with a dead chicken. (He show more actually found it very cathartic.)

He followed his personal journey with epidemiology, biological causes, and historical development of depression.

I found this book fascinating. Solomon did a great job of inserting little vignettes of his own story or stories of people he interviewed into his more intellectual portions of the book, so that the material never became dry despite its length. Solomon came up with so many interesting points that I was always interested in what he would say next. His own story was touching. His facts seemed very well-researched. In short, it was simply an amazing book.

This is only a portion of my review to see the full one: http://hibernatorslibrary.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-noonday-demon-by-andrew-solom... show less

For some reason, I find myself drawn to books about depression. This must be the fourth or fifth nonfiction book on depression I’ve read in the last few years, and I think it’s probably the best. The chapters vary widely in style and I found some to be more interesting than others. The early chapter on Solomon’s own struggle with major depression was interesting and well-written, though I’ve noticed that narratives of a writer’s own depression can sometimes get lost in the weeds. In telling his own story, Solomon mostly keeps things moving briskly along, with thoughtful reflections on the nature of depression spread throughout. My favorite chapters were on the history of depression and it’s biology. The amount of research show more Solomon must of done to cover thousands of years of literary history is really impressive. We follow as depression turns from a disequilibrium of humors, to a possession, to a kind of fashionable sensitivity, and then to a disease. It’s strangely comforting to think how people have been struggle with depression for all of recorded history, and through the chapter on biology we learn that to be human is perhaps to be depressed. show less

TL;DR Synopsis
Depression is pretty common and totally awful for a whole slew of reasons.

TL;DR Review
Uncomfortably relateable, but with comforting amounts of information pulled from a variety of sources and filtered through many different lenses.

Review
If you've ever wondered how depression affects X, chances are, it's covered in this book. But you could probably guess that from the sheer size of the thing. There's a lot of info between the covers of Noonday Demon, but we all know that quantity doesn't necessarily equal quality. Well, don't worry. The information provided is throughly sourced, highly relevant, and presented clearly and understandably.

Despite the amount of information provided and the potentially devastating subject, I show more never felt confused or overwhelmed. NAME excels at presenting all of his information clearly and weaving others' opinions with his own words in such a way that never leaves the reader confused. And I never felt crushed by the weight of the topic, even while experiencing a mild depressive episode myself. (Because I chose to read this in the middle of winter -- my hardest season -- like a dummy.)

If you suffer from depression, read this book. If you have a loved one in your life who suffers from depression, read this book. If you are at all interested in the psychology of or global impact of depression, read this book. It is a real treasure. show less

"I lost a great innocence when I understood that I and my mind were not going to be on good terms for the rest of my life."

It is going to be dashed difficult to separate the experience of reading this book from the experience of living with depression, just as it was impossible for the author to separate writing about it from living with it.

The great innocence lost that is referred to in the first quotation taken from the book is the sense of being able to rely on your own mind, at least, even when you feel like you can't rely on anything or anyone else. And finding that this mind has a mind of its own and can work against you instead of for you is probably the bitterest disappointment and letdown that I don't wish on anyone.

Therefore, show more I'd like to argue that the most authoritative voices on depression are those of sufferers themselves. Andrew Solomon tackles the subject from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the deeply and painfully personal to the medical and societal, all told with grace and depth.

We are introduced to the many ugly faces of depression, and more importantly, the many voices of depressed people, because each case is different from the rest, and in each case a different combination of factors has conspired to bring about the unwanted result, politics/policy and poverty amongst those Solomon explores.

"Sometimes I wish I could see my brain. I’d like to know what marks have been carved in it. I imagine it grey, damp, elaborate. I think of it sitting in my head, and sometimes I feel as if there’s me, who is living life, and this strange thing stuck in my head that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. It’s very odd. This is me. This is my brain. This is the pain that lives in my brain. Look here and you can see where the pain scratched this thing, what places are knotty and lumped up, which places are glowing."

Among other new and fascinating things, this book introduces one of the most captivating theories for the cause of depression: the explanation of depression as a relic of evolution. It all serves to show admirably that this condition is valid and should be as visible as physical ailments, because the forces at work behind it are very real and cause almost unimaginable suffering to an unimaginably high number of people.

However, not all is bleak, because, as any good Wikipedia article will tell you, depression is highly treatable, and experience with it will teach you how to live with it. Nobody is happy all the time, not even those who, fortunately for them, don’t add depression to their list of medical problems. On the converse, however, nobody can be sad all the time either. There’s much comfort in the thought that feeling bad all the time is just physiologically unsustainable. The rain and the sun, you know, and all that rot. But, once again, Solomon makes a good point in explaining it:

"The opposite of depression is not happiness but vitality, and my life, as I write this, is vital, even when sad."

Vitality in the face of being unable to get out of bed yet again. Just because life is low doesn't mean it stops. Depression is here to stay. So what? Like moving in with a new flatmate, your best bet is to get to know them. And now they have an entire atlas written about them.

Highly recommended for depressed people, those who think they might be, as well as their family and friends. show less

Why are so many books about depression written by people like this? They always seem to have someone to help them, someone to put an arm around them and comfort them, someone to talk to about what’s happening to them, someone to listen—and wouldn’t last five minutes living the sort of life most of its sufferers are forced to. “My father”, “my family”, “my circle of friends”; “my literary agent”, “my publisher”, “a journalist / director / professor I know”; “my analyst”, “my therapist”, “my psychopharmacologist”… Most depressed people have none of these, and none of the money this author clearly has either (“my psychopharmacologist”???).
    True, The Noonday Demon is comprehensive, show more thoughtful, some of the writing wonderful—and there were one or two memorable details: depression among the Inuit inhabitants of Greenland for instance (where an incredible 80% of the adult population suffers from it). The chapter about the history of the condition was interesting too: the ancient Greeks had a surprisingly modern and sympathetic view of depression (particularly their doctors, most notably Hippocrates) and it was the Christian worldview—converting an illness into a sin—which saddled it with the stigma it’s been stuck with ever since.
    Overall, though, I learned precious little in return for slogging my way through 512 pages. Above all, it just made me bloody angry. During one of the author’s own depressive episodes for example: “Some dear friends, recently married, moved into my house and stayed with me for two months, getting me through the difficult parts of the days, talking through my anxieties and fears, telling me stories, seeing to it that I was eating, mitigating the loneliness…my brother flew in from California…my father snapped to attention…” This guy is living on another planet. show less

Do not read this while in the midst of a depressive episode. It describes the feeling of being in the grip of the Black Dog so well that as I read it I had to keep stopping and reminding myself this is a book. It is also exquisitely organized, looking at depression from a variety of different perspectives, while never giving one priority. Solomon's point-of-view happens to coincide with my own, by and large, so I wasn't as irritated by his interjections of his own beliefs as I might have been.