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Eat, Pray, Love is a HUGELY popular book right now - and it is all about how a travel writer deals with serious depression. She is suicidal, on medication, talking with a therapist. It takes her a solid year to work through her issues and begin to emerge from it.

I posted a long review of this book in this forum -

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Lisa Shea, Low Carb and Video Games Editor
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I have not read the book, but I do know that depression is not solely based on your day going bad, or having a bad week. It is at times a medical condition that affect many ppl, and at times these ppl have no idea why they feel this way.


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Right exactly, Ms. D. Some of the reviewers on Amazon were saying in essence "Hey my life is worse than yours, and *I* am not depressed, so you should not be. Buck up and stop being depressed!" They say it as if people choose to be depressed and can just miraculously choose to be happy and therefore be happy.

I am really tempted to post a comment like that on their anti-depression review - and maybe I should. It is dangerous for people who feel that "depression is fixed by a smile" not to at least be alerted to the fact that depression is a medical issue. If they manage to talk a depressed friend out of taking their medication, for example, the results could be catastrophic.


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And your so right,
The causes of depression aren't fully understood. A number of factors may make a person more likely to experience depression, such as family tendency, side effects of certain medications, an introverted personality,and emotionally upsetting event, particularly those involving a loss.
Depression may also arise or worsen without any apparent or significant life stress.
Women are twice as likely as men to experience depression, though the reasons aren't entirely clear. Psychologic studies show that women tend to respond to adversity by withdrawing into themselves and blaming themselves. In contrast men tend to deny adversity and throw themselves into activities. Of biologic factors, hormones are the ones involved. Changes in hormone levels, which can create mood changes shortly before menstruation and after childbirth might play a role in women.Similar hormonal changes may occur with the use of oral contraceptives in women who have experienced depression.
Abnormal thyroid function, which is faily common in women, may also be a factor
Depression that follows a traumatic event such as the death of a loved one, is called Situational depression
Depression without an apparent precipitation event is called Endogenous depression. Depression may also occur with or be caused by a number of physical diseases or disorders.
Various prescription drugs, most notably drugs used to treat high blood pressure, can cause depression For unknown reasons, corticosteroids often cause depression when they are produced in large amounts as part of a disease, as in Cushing.s syndrome, but tend to cause elation when they are given as medication
A number of psychiatric conditions can predispose a person to depression, including certain anxiety disorders,Alcoholism, and other substance abuse disorders, schizophrenia, and the early phase of dementia.


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Okay, I ordered this book from my library. smile

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Let us know when you get it, Jilly, I'm interested in hearing your take on it!


Lisa Shea, Low Carb and Video Games Editor
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I work in a large library and interest in that book has been massive. I have, however, heard many people call her a 'flake' and said the book was just too self absorbed. Personally, I bought the book just to re-read the bits where she was on the bathroom floor crying, because frankly, I admire her total honesty and having struggled with anxiety myself, I can appreciate the stages she went through. She's incredibly brave to put this on paper, NOT self-indulgent. Also heard her interviewed on the radio and she is very well spoken and just as funny as you'd think.
It's a great read!


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On one hand, I can see people not saying "I would make every single decision she did". But on the other hand, it's a personal memoir!! It's her real life. We all make mistakes. We all do things we wish we didn't. She is trying to help others by sharing what she did. Is she a flake for being honest? Should she have lied about how awful she felt? I just don't get that. Is she a flake for not "bucking up" and just getting over the depression on her own with a magic wand?

I wonder - if you asked people WHY they felt she was a flake, what do you think they would say? Because she divorced her husband rather than stay in a relationship that was having her contemplate suicide?


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Okay, I got the book in. I can't wait to start reading it tonite. It looks well written to my quick browse.

Dan says it pisses him off that people would find someone doing something great with their lives, like travel, as selfish or flaky. We totally don't get that. Should someone sit at a desk and live only half a life, or less, b/c other people might disapprove?

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As someone who has a clinical depression problem, I have to say I totally am there about the bathroom floor scenes.

For me, I used to retreat into my closet. It was safe in the closet. Nothing bad ever happened in there. Safe, quiet, dark and neutral.

I have also been known to cry in a heap on the shower floor, during a shower.

There were also a few times when i would get up in the middle of the night and stare at the front door from the inside, longing for...something....

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