Life After Darkness: A Doctor's Journey Through Severe Depression / Edition 1

by Cathy Wield

Overview

Life After Darkness is the remarkable and moving story of a doctor and mother of four who endured seven years of severe depression. Self-harm, attempted suicides and admissions to psychiatric units culminated in her resorting to brain surgery as a final attempt to escape her illness. The story of Cathy Wield covers the horrors of time spent in archaic institutions and the loss of any hope, to a full recovery following'surgery. Today she has returned to her career and rediscovered the joys of life and her family. This story is one of hope from an often hidden and stigmatized disease.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781857757293
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/15/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Cathy Wield

Table of Contents

A promising future. Working mother. Falling into the pit. Time is no great healer. Freely consenting? Concerns for everyone. Torture made perfect. The therapeutic environment. Attempt at a slow death. Last resort. Winter of discontent. The new millennium. Summer, pain and shame. Dear diary. North of the border. The padded cell. Impatient and in disgrace. Interminable battle. The health commissioners visit. Mayflower or high security prisoner. A date at last. Never a dull moment. The end of the road. Light at the end of the tunnel. What on earth is email? Future considerations. A taste of the past. Postscript: in sickness and in health. Neurosurgery information sheet. Directory of organizations.

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Brett C. Plyler, M.D.(Northwestern Memorial Hospital)
Description: This is an account of a physician in the U.K. who is afflicted with severe depression.
Purpose: The author's purpose is to tell the story of her depression, hospitalizations, treatment, and ultimate recovery. These are worthy objectives.
Audience: This book is written for anyone interested in how mental illness can afflict a person and what the experience can be like. The author is a credible authority.
Features: This is an account of the author's descent into severe depressive illness that lasted seven years. She was a physician when it began but descended into long periods of hospitalizations, multiple series of ECT treatments, and frequent episodes of self-harm. The story is gathered from her physicians, therapists, family, friends, and other treatment staff. There is also her personal diary that began approximately halfway through her illness. There is a glossary of technical terms used in the text.
Assessment: This book is both compelling and difficult, but ultimately uplifting as the author is healed by a neurosurgical or "psychosurgical" procedure after seven harrowing years of severe depression with little improvement. Her accounts can be chilling as she relates her episodes of cutting and pouring boiling water on herself. It should be required reading for new residents and mental health providers to demonstrate the awful toll that mental illness can take even on a healthy, well-adjusted physician. I do think the book should have been called "Life During Darkness" as most of the story centers around her seven years of depression. I also feel that her vast improvement with the psychosurgery procedure presents a very optimistic view of this type of treatment, although I agree that she had few options left and a later discussion of psychosurgery does present realistic outcomes and expectations. Overall, this is a remarkable read that will leave readers with a new understanding of what patients experience.

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