have you ever...

[ruthmollymummy]

...read a book about someone with depression that has helped/hindered you? I have just re-read "the yellow wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and realised the main character has post natal depression - like me! its fascinating me and i wondered if anyone else has read a story/novel old or recent that has done the same?

I know it is a bit lightweight but I am generally after an escapist hit when i read, and 'A long way down' by nick hornby was supposed to be a giggle, then i started wondering...
read something else, then went back and read it when feeling more sensible.

warning! the yellow wallpaper may make you more mad! but the author wrote it after suffering from depression all her life with the intent of changing the way people deal with depression, but yeah - its a kooky one! you can read it online here
www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html

you're fab, thanks for the link.

how are you doing now?
(or should i ask what are you reading now ?)

gave up my search for more similar books, have to start writting a dissertation for honours year of uni in sept and thought could actually make use of madness for said project!
otherwise I am well, with the help of lovely DH and prozac!
and yourself?

madness sounds like a good diss topic

also sorted with lovely DH and lovely AD's so the light has been switched back on. Only found people who have experienced smilar on here, people don't like to 'admit' it in RL, do they? so ok, I didn't either, for over a year, but as someone told me - that was part of the whole thing. It's the big denial issue and the hiding what would be observable, that I think would be a fascinating thing to find more about, and didn't mean to be flippant about the 'madness' thing, presumably we are talking in similar flippancies [hehe i think i may have just invented a word?]
oh dear is this too serious a thing to be debating at this hour of the night? I am still nocturnal, y'see. kids sleep, I don't ahh well.

Am reading "Saving Samantha" by Samantha Weaver which is a true story about her horrible childhood and how she overcomes depression in her adult life. Was sitting reading it earlier with tears puring down my face. It brought back some memories for me that I would probably rather ignore but I am gripped nonetheless

gigglewitch, i laughed at your post - you and I are possibly kindred spirits, big hehe at "flippancies" I have used it in conversation already today!! Though unlike you I am definately not nocturnal - baby sleeps, mummy zzzzzz.
I dont know what the diss topic will actually be.... madness ...umm... any suggestions to narrow it down a bit?

gigglewitch, i laughed at your post - you and I are possibly kindred spirits, big hehe at "flippancies" I have used it in conversation already today!! Though unlike you I am definately not nocturnal - baby sleeps, mummy zzzzzz.
I dont know what the diss topic will actually be.... madness ...umm... any suggestions to narrow it down a bit?

for an unbelievably insightful look into the subtleties of depression 'the bell jar' is unrivalled, but i suppose really nobody who is depressed should read it! for a really beautiful uplifting read go for 'veronika decides to die' by paulo coelho. it has such a strong message and stays with you long after you have finished reading it.

oh i loved 'veronika decides to die', truely magnificent. such an interesting thought about what is sanity and what is madness - how sanity is only normality, not necesarily sanity.... iyswim!!
and i agree about 'the bell jar', and it hardly helps that sylvia plath later killed herself..!