Reaction Paper to Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

Some might claim the YA genre has grown to be too dark for its target audience. Meghan Gurdon, a firm believer of this idea, explains why she believes this in her article, “Darkness Too Visible”. Gurdon describes the experience of a mother of three in a bookstore looking to purchase a YA novel for one of her children, when she found herself leaving the bookstore empty-handed due to the content of the teen books. While teen books decades ago contained less violent/corrupted material, times have changed along with the genre. She is concerned that these books could have an effect on these young readers’ brains as they are merely transferring from childhood to adulthood. Gurdon still has faith that YA books would sell just as well and connect with young readers today without all of the dark subject matters discussed in them these days.

Bowen,D.E, & Strickler,S. L. (2004). A good friend for bad times: helping others through grief. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortess

In normal life, people will sometimes suffer from depression or sickness caused by the loss of a loved one in a romantic or family relationship. This has been a part of life for hundreds of years and it is a way that authors like Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner and Horacio Quiroga connect with people all throughout the world. Using exaggerated scenarios, these authors communicate how much of an impact isolation or abandonment can have on a person physically or mentally decaying.

Depression placed a dark brooding shadow over my mind. I was weighed down, oppressed by the burden of having to carry on with life. In my mind, there was a crushing sense of hopelessness that I have never felt before. The only therapy I found was taking that beautiful, freshly sharpened razor to my left arm. A sigh of relief departed me as I watched the bright red blood drip from my vein. The only burden I had was going to school and hiding my war scars. Each day, the darkness spread through me like cancer. My body withering away, I needed an escape route from this crucial disease. This all continued until the day I saw a light and the darkness began to fade

Most books about depression focus heavily on the negative and, frankly, depressing. These kinds of texts tend to scare the public and raise pity for those who are suffering. Although this serious look on mental health is effective in getting the public to notice the plights of those with depression, PTSD, schizophrenia, or any other mental illness it does not leave a lasting impression. The reason for this is because of the sheer amount of written work that displays mental health and illness in a fatalistic view. In contrast to the dreary and bitter outlook on mental illness, Jenny Lawson introduces a distinct point of view. As well as introducing an atypical way to share her own experiences with mental illness, she also gives the public a perspective on depression that isn’t normally

At some point in our life we all deal with grief. Whether it’s because of the loss of a loved one, a relationship, or even if you’re the one dying. Grief is something no one wants to bear, but we all feel its heaviness one way or another. In her model, Kubler-Ross introduced the five stages of grief, and this model can be applied to every situation involving grief or loss. In the novel Ordinary People, by Judith Guest, we can see the process of grief and how we and those around us are affected emotionally through the perspective of Conrad and Calvin.

There’s something that struck me when Andrew Solomon mentions the friend he has who went to electroshock therapy every month and that he was going to try a brain surgery to maybe change his life for the better. The Christmas after the surgery, Mr. Solomon received a letter from this man, saying that one of the two presents he had gotten from his father that year was a picture of his grandmother who had committed suicide. He started crying, not because he had never met his grandmother, but because they both shared depression. He was crying because he could have ended up like his grandmother, and not with the wonderful family he has today. Having a mental illness such as depression, and being in recovery from it, when you learn of someone who you could have one day known who killed themselves because they were unable to handle the stresses, the feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness coupled with almost crippling anxiety, it makes you realize that that person could have been you. You could have been unable to eventually get a grip through medications, therapies, ECT, or surgeries, and missed all of the things that make up your life today.

The first stage of grief I experienced while coming to terms with Stan’s condition was depression. Having received no sympathetic support from my family, I sat alone by Stan as he slept. Thoughts raced through my head, so much so that it was hard to think, so instead I began to cry. As I cried the fog in my head slowly lifted, and the only thing I could think about was how I was not ready for him to leave, and I couldn’t fathom how to continue without him. The cliche phrase ‘he’s in a better place now’ kept surfacing in my mind, and no matter how great my will I could not bring myself to believe it. I felt so helpless sitting there next to him knowing he was in pain and there was nothing I could do about it. I left his side only when I could no longer keep consciousness, and somehow deep within my heart I knew he wouldn’t make it through the night.

Even when the doctor prescribed anti-depressants, Sam refused to take them hanging on to the belief in the power of his own strength and belief he would overcome it himself. Sam’s battle against depression became a battle against pride and stigma.

Despite the milestones that we have crossed in regards to mental illness awareness in recent decades, “depression” is still thrown around casually by people who do not realize the weight of the word. It seems as though it is difficult for many to grasp the concept that depression is more than just a fleeting feeling of sadness or discontent; depression is a chemical imbalance that affects mood and behavior, resulting in feelings of dread and sadness to suicidal thoughts and actions. There is a stigma that comes with being depressed, one that negates the seriousness of the illness and depicts depressives as over reactive, whiny, and selfish. One of the very effective methods of purging this stigma is to give an account of living with depression to show how difficult it is to live with and persevere through, a method that Elizabeth Wurtzel uses in her memoir, Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America. A narrative of Wurtzel’s nadir in her battle with depression, Prozac Nation is a brutally honest, emotional retelling of her turbulent mental state throughout her teenage years and early twenties. Wurtzel’s story helps to bring awareness to the seriousness of depression, especially its emotional impact, occupation of the mind, and life altering complications. She highlights these issues through documentations of her tempestuous emotions, suicidal tendencies, self-obsession, hopelessness, and eventual recovery, cogently putting the reader in her

For instance, Ian Woodruff suggests the Invisible Suitcase Analogy for counselors to examine their past grief understandings and how it has affected their well-being. By integrating this metaphor into the treatment, the counselor and client can establish a beneficial relationship that holds a dynamic interaction. The purpose of this approach is to unfold the client’s internal responses to grief that they are not aware of (Pomeroy & Garcia,

Many people define depression as being heartsick and sad all the time when in reality there is much more to that interpretation. Because little is known about this illness, Sahrish Ahmad goes into great detail about the true meaning of depression and states that “it is a debilitating disease that sucks pleasure out of the lives of its sufferers and shrinks their self-esteem to almost nothing.”(Ahmad). In other words, it is a constant and overwhelming feeling of helplessness. Some question if this disorder is capable of actually killing a victim who suffers from it. Indeed it can. Ahmad expresses his point of view by asserting that “high depression can go as far as a killer disease.”(Ahmad). With this being said, the personal, social and occupational lives suffering from depression have the possibility of becoming defective. Victims of this illness can go beyond imagined thoughts and actually take their own life because they would much rather be dead instead of having to go through what they

As discussed, the treatment they receive from members of the public, and also the way they view their own condition, and the conduct of mental health professionals involved with them are all affected by the biomedical approach (Haslam, & Kvaale, 2015). When presented with a biomedical explanation for their disorder, patients have an increased pessimism in regards to their recovery, a tendency to elect medication as opposed to psychological therapy, and they are also less likely to believe in their control over their own moods and in the potential for recovery (Haslam, & Kvaale, 2015). A negative outlook on personal mental illness has detrimental effects on sufferers. This perception directly affects a patient’s resilience, emotional state, and mood, which promotes a submissive approach to recovery and the idea of having no control over their illness. An optimistic outlook in regards to their own illness is plays a crucial role in improvement and

Statistics show that 1 in 4 people within the United Kingdom will experience various types of mental health issues on an annual basis (Mental Health Foundation, 2014). This therefore makes it an alarming statistic for modern day society. Depression is a universal human affliction that can be traced back to early civilisations, which is evident in many texts such as the bible, Greek and Roman classics and even Shakespeare. (Hammen,

Depression is the leading mental illness worldwide, affecting millions of people every day. As one of the most common mental illnesses, it can occur to anyone, at any age, and to people of any race or ethnic group. With his book Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness, William Styron became of the first people to publicly acknowledge his struggling battle with depression. Darkness Visible is an intense and haunting account of Styron’s own suicidal depression in which he reminds us of the toll that this dreadful illness can have on an individual. As Styron describes his own descent into depression, he tells about the place that he was in, “the despair beyond despair” as he describes it to be. Since its publication, his memoir has been appreciated throughout the world and become a helping hand for people around the world who are suffering from depression. Styron’s description of his experiences resonates with people in a deep and profound way, turning his work into an advocate for the movement for the awareness for depression