Struck by Living
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4.4 • 10 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Struck by Living is a hopeful story about clinical depression that reads like a fast-paced novel, with characters that charm and frustrate. The content is tough, but the story is difficult to abandon.
The book also relates to a struggle for identity. After leaving the business world to care for two small children and aging grandparents, as well as adapting to an interfaith marriage and life in Dallas, TX, Hersh evaporated into her surroundings, no longer sure of who she was. Purpose? Desires? These questions cratered Julie setting in motion a genetic predisposition for depression. Julie's search takes her from psychiatric wards, to mountain tops, to the inside of a garage with the engine running.
With over 33,000 suicides annually in the U.S. alone, Julie Hersh hopes that by telling her story, she can encourage others to seek help. Her book attempts to bridge the gap between those who understand depression and those who don't. In addition, she offers a chance for those who are depressed to know they are not alone.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Despite an idyllic family life, including two children and a loving husband, the depression that consumed former business exec Hersh drove her to three suicide attempts in the space of six months. In this inspiring, brutal memoir, Hersh documents her struggle back to life, including stints in hospital psychiatric wards, a month at an anti-depression camp, various medications, and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Hersh renders her journey in graceful prose ("My deathtrap brain failed to truncate my existence") that doesn't get in the way of her attempts to dispel the stigma that surrounds mental illness and its treatment; she faces ECT early on and finds it a particularly effective treatment far removed from its negative popular image. As a severe case, Hersh gives a clear, resonant voice to many aspects of a complicated illness, while offering a moving and hopeful (though at times frightening) narrative for those fighting to overcome depression's worst.
