Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me
Depression in the First Person
Ratings7
Average rating3.9
15
Depression in the First Person
Ratings7
Average rating3.9
An engrossing memoir-meets-investigative report that takes a fresh, frank look at how we treat depression Depression is a havoc-wreaking illness that masquerades as personal failing and hijacks your life. After a major suicide attempt in her early twenties, Anna Mehler Paperny resolved to put her reporter’s skills to use to get to know her enemy, setting off on a journey to understand her condition, the dizzying array of medical treatments on offer, and a medical profession in search of answers. Charting the way depression wrecks so many lives, she maps competing schools of therapy, pharmacology, cutting-edge medicine, the pill-popping pitfalls of long-term treatment, the glaring unknowns and the institutional shortcomings that both patients and practitioners are up against. She interviews leading medical experts across the US and Canada, from psychiatrists to neurologists, brain-mapping pioneers to family practitioners, and others dabbling in strange hypotheses—and shares compassionate conversations with fellow sufferers. Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me tracks Anna’s quest for knowledge and her desire to get well. Impeccably reported, it is a profoundly compelling story about the human spirit and the myriad ways we treat (and fail to treat) the disease that accounts for more years swallowed up by disability than any other in the world.
Reviews with the most likes.
TW: suicide: A wildly honest and vulnerable first hand account of depression and suicide. The author does a great job of highlighting how neglected mental health treatments have been in terms of medical R&D and advancement and how even the makers of todays antidepressants (essentially the same as those accidentally discovered 50+ years ago). The author also highlights how our general queasiness and reluctance to discuss depression is part of what prevents it from becoming a bigger focus of our care systems and industries. Despite having the greatest disease impact according to WHO we don't treat depression and other mood disorders like we do for cancer. It breaks my heart that so many people who have attempted or thought about attempting to end their life did not reach out for help because they were worried about their honestly getting them in trouble, or upsetting other people. We should not make people feel they need to suffer in silence because we don't like to talk about it or because we don't understand it.
If someone you love deals with depression this book can be a great insight into what their experience may contain or look like. 10/10 recommend
