The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Why are so many books about depression written by people like this? They always seem to have someone to help them, someone to put an arm around them and comfort them, someone to talk to about what’s happening to them, someone to listen—and wouldn’t last five minutes living the sort of life most of its sufferers are forced to. “My father”, “my family”, “my circle of friends”; “my literary agent”, “my publisher”, “a journalist / director / professor I know”; “my analyst”, “my therapist”, “my psychopharmacologist”… Most depressed people have none of these, and none of the money this author clearly has either (“my psychopharmacologist”???).
    True, The Noonday Demon is comprehensive, show more thoughtful, some of the writing wonderful—and there were one or two memorable details: depression among the Inuit inhabitants of Greenland for instance (where an incredible 80% of the adult population suffers from it). The chapter about the history of the condition was interesting too: the ancient Greeks had a surprisingly modern and sympathetic view of depression (particularly their doctors, most notably Hippocrates) and it was the Christian worldview—converting an illness into a sin—which saddled it with the stigma it’s been stuck with ever since.
    Overall, though, I learned precious little in return for slogging my way through 512 pages. Above all, it just made me bloody angry. During one of the author’s own depressive episodes for example: “Some dear friends, recently married, moved into my house and stayed with me for two months, getting me through the difficult parts of the days, talking through my anxieties and fears, telling me stories, seeing to it that I was eating, mitigating the loneliness…my brother flew in from California…my father snapped to attention…” This guy is living on another planet. show less

For some reason, I find myself drawn to books about depression. This must be the fourth or fifth nonfiction book on depression I’ve read in the last few years, and I think it’s probably the best. The chapters vary widely in style and I found some to be more interesting than others. The early chapter on Solomon’s own struggle with major depression was interesting and well-written, though I’ve noticed that narratives of a writer’s own depression can sometimes get lost in the weeds. In telling his own story, Solomon mostly keeps things moving briskly along, with thoughtful reflections on the nature of depression spread throughout. My favorite chapters were on the history of depression and it’s biology. The amount of research show more Solomon must of done to cover thousands of years of literary history is really impressive. We follow as depression turns from a disequilibrium of humors, to a possession, to a kind of fashionable sensitivity, and then to a disease. It’s strangely comforting to think how people have been struggle with depression for all of recorded history, and through the chapter on biology we learn that to be human is perhaps to be depressed. show less

Noonday Demon is Andrew Solomon's amazing memoir / history of depression - it's a must-read for anyone who wants to delve deeply into the causes and effects of depression. Solomon begins with his own journey through several severe depressive episodes. For a broader personal understanding of depression, he intermittently includes stories of "depressives" that he's interviewed. In his research for this book, Solomon explored many standard therapies for depression (i.e. medicine, psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, etc.); but he also explored some very atypical therapies such as an African ritual in which he lay naked and covered in goat blood while people danced around him with a dead chicken. (He show more actually found it very cathartic.)

He followed his personal journey with epidemiology, biological causes, and historical development of depression.

I found this book fascinating. Solomon did a great job of inserting little vignettes of his own story or stories of people he interviewed into his more intellectual portions of the book, so that the material never became dry despite its length. Solomon came up with so many interesting points that I was always interested in what he would say next. His own story was touching. His facts seemed very well-researched. In short, it was simply an amazing book.

This is only a portion of my review to see the full one: http://hibernatorslibrary.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-noonday-demon-by-andrew-solom... show less

"I lost a great innocence when I understood that I and my mind were not going to be on good terms for the rest of my life."

It is going to be dashed difficult to separate the experience of reading this book from the experience of living with depression, just as it was impossible for the author to separate writing about it from living with it.

The great innocence lost that is referred to in the first quotation taken from the book is the sense of being able to rely on your own mind, at least, even when you feel like you can't rely on anything or anyone else. And finding that this mind has a mind of its own and can work against you instead of for you is probably the bitterest disappointment and letdown that I don't wish on anyone.

Therefore, show more I'd like to argue that the most authoritative voices on depression are those of sufferers themselves. Andrew Solomon tackles the subject from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the deeply and painfully personal to the medical and societal, all told with grace and depth.

We are introduced to the many ugly faces of depression, and more importantly, the many voices of depressed people, because each case is different from the rest, and in each case a different combination of factors has conspired to bring about the unwanted result, politics/policy and poverty amongst those Solomon explores.

"Sometimes I wish I could see my brain. I’d like to know what marks have been carved in it. I imagine it grey, damp, elaborate. I think of it sitting in my head, and sometimes I feel as if there’s me, who is living life, and this strange thing stuck in my head that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. It’s very odd. This is me. This is my brain. This is the pain that lives in my brain. Look here and you can see where the pain scratched this thing, what places are knotty and lumped up, which places are glowing."

Among other new and fascinating things, this book introduces one of the most captivating theories for the cause of depression: the explanation of depression as a relic of evolution. It all serves to show admirably that this condition is valid and should be as visible as physical ailments, because the forces at work behind it are very real and cause almost unimaginable suffering to an unimaginably high number of people.

However, not all is bleak, because, as any good Wikipedia article will tell you, depression is highly treatable, and experience with it will teach you how to live with it. Nobody is happy all the time, not even those who, fortunately for them, don’t add depression to their list of medical problems. On the converse, however, nobody can be sad all the time either. There’s much comfort in the thought that feeling bad all the time is just physiologically unsustainable. The rain and the sun, you know, and all that rot. But, once again, Solomon makes a good point in explaining it:

"The opposite of depression is not happiness but vitality, and my life, as I write this, is vital, even when sad."

Vitality in the face of being unable to get out of bed yet again. Just because life is low doesn't mean it stops. Depression is here to stay. So what? Like moving in with a new flatmate, your best bet is to get to know them. And now they have an entire atlas written about them.

Highly recommended for depressed people, those who think they might be, as well as their family and friends. show less

I don't really know what to say about this book. I don't think saying that I enjoyed it is completely correct, and yet it had a profound impact on me.

I have chronic depression, and control it with medication. When Listening to Prozac, by Peter Kramer came out, I was angry because, although he definitely states that there are certain people who are genuinely helped by antidepressants, his overall theme that using medication to eliminate the normal ups and downs of life left me wondering whether or not I was one of those people who simply didn't WANT to face what life had to offer.

When I read The Noonday Demon, I found it remarkable how well he described experiences that I had had, but had never been able to articulate. There is a line show more in the book that I continue to use all the time (paraphrasing): Depression is not about feeling sad, it is about a lack of motivation.

Reading that statement gave me an insight into my own experience, and actually allowed me to begin to heal in ways that I don't believe I could have done without that understanding. show less

The author is a good writer, especially when he presents a human interest story. I feel the best parts of the book are where he recounts his depression and breakdowns (Ch. 1 and 2), and his mother's suicide (Ch. 7). Very moving. (But perhaps depressing to read. I don't recommend people feeling depressed read these parts of the book. You will feel worse than before.) The second best parts are where he presents and explains the many existing treatments for depression (Ch. 3 and 4). He is very knowledgable and informative on this subject. I learned a lot! The rest of the book is.....a lot of random facts/history/political views/conjectures/anything in tangent regarding depression. Not as moving or eye-opening to read about. The chapter show more that tried to explain why depression persists in human beings in the process of evolution is very unconvincing (I think the author found the arguments he collected from evolutionary biologists unconvincing as well. He pretty much said so. Not sure why he kept that chapter in the book.)

Some (out of the many) things I learned from this book: 1. Research shows talking therapy will work when the patient experiences good rapport with the therapist and trusts the therapist knows what he/she is doing. The therapist's professional training doesn't matter XD ; 2. The most effective way to relieve depressive symptoms is to shock the brain with electric currents, but the side effect is memory loss; 3. To this day, we don't know exactly how/why depression medication works. We just know the symptoms are indeed relieved after taking the medication for some time. Since it takes some time for the drugs to take effect, we know that it is not a direct effect; 4. Religion helps patients recover. While not very helpful during severe breakdowns, religious truths serve as doorposts that help guide the patient move away from their negative thinking; 5. Depression has many different symptoms, no one's combination of symptoms is exactly the same as other people's. And it's often difficult to others to see these symptoms and believe the patient is ill, unless the patient actually has a public breakdown; 6. The author's suggestion for what friend and family of patients can do is to "be there for them" even when they push you away; 7. When you're severely depressed, you're not suicidal, because you don't want to do anything. It's not until you slightly recover and can actually take actions to do things that you are in danger of suicide. show less

Andres Solomon takes readers through the valley of despair in his book, The Noonday Demon, a national book award winning tome that describes despair and mental torment in such lovely language it is like trailing one's fingertips through cold water. Shocking, numbing, and yet oddly entrancing.
Solomon's discussion of his own experiences and those of people he has been interacting with is heartbreaking. The depth of pain they have experienced is harrowing. It is hard to imagine the mind that turns so much on its owner. As someone who has experienced depression for several years, I've had a taste of this experience. It is almost impossible to express. Solomon's book is perfect for helping put the feelings into words.
That said, I don't show more believe your average depressed person could swallow this book. It is long, dense, typed small. The tales are legion. I had to stop reading intently and start skimming for fear of being swallowed, and I have to admit my innate rejection of wallowing made me balk at some of his descriptions. I do know despair, and the darkness therein, but I haven't been where he and these people have been, and it is difficult to empathize. Is mental pain worse than bone cancer pain? Can they be equated? How much is "letting things take you down" and how much is a part of the disease?
I think these questions always arise with mental illness, with many other diseases less obvious to the viewer. I have MS and tire of being told that I just need a positive attitude to overcome the muscle spasms and weakness that overcome me daily. I imagine the severely depressed feel the same way.
The discussion of why medications work and how is somewhat muddy and it would behoove anyone on these medications to review them with a qualified pharmacist.
Overall, this is a fantastic reference book to the feelings in depression. Just don't read it on a grey, rainy day when life already seems a bit dingy around the edges... show less