Will's Choice: A Suicidal Teen, a Desperate Mother, and a Chronicle of Recovery - Hardcover

Griffith, Gail

3.74

116 ratings by Goodreads

9780060598655: Will's Choice: A Suicidal Teen, a Desperate Mother, and a Chronicle of Recovery

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060598654 ISBN 13: 9780060598655

Publisher: Harper, 2005

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In the early hours of March 11, 2001, seventeen-year-old Will ingested a near-fatal dose of his antidepressant medication, an event that forever changed his life and the lives of his family. In Will's Choice, his mother, Gail Griffith, takes us down the very personal road each of the family members traveled to renew Will's interest in life and to regain their equilibrium in the aftermath of his self-destructive act. Griffith intersperses her own finely wrought prose with dozens of letters and journal entries from family and friends, including many from Will himself, allowing us to bear witness to Will's attempts to explain what even he cannot fully understand: why he did it.

A memoir with a social conscience, this book not only examines one family's struggle to overcome depression and an attempted suicide, it lays bare the social, political, and economic challenges that American families face in combating this most mysterious and stigmatized of illnesses. In Gail Griffith, depressed teens have found themselves a formidable new advocate. And in the evocative and fiercely compelling narrative of Will's Choice, we all discover the promise of a second chance.

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About the Author:

Gail Griffith has spent most of her career as a coordinator, fundraiser, and advocate for international humanitarian programs. She is a member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and has served as the patient representative to the Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee on possible links between antidepressant medication and suicidal thinking in teenagers. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Review:

“Powerful prose...Griffith educates and empathizes. With the story of Will’s choice—life—she gives hope to families in crisis.” (Washington Post Book World)

“A comfort and resource for people of any age struggling out of that pitch-dark place of the soul.” (Washingtonian Magazine)

“A heartbreaking and hopeful account that highlights a public health crisis in dire need of attention.” (Albuquerque Journal)

“Gripping, grueling and entrancing...A knowledgeable guide’s revelatory report on a disturbing phenomenon.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Painfully honest...heartrending...a plea to society to recognize that depression is a serious but treatable illness.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Griffith’s stirring prose is supplemented by...useful and possibly life-saving advice for parents...a powerful personal story.” (Library Journal (starred review))

“This is a book about the struggle to supplement love with wisdom in the face of great pain.” (Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon)

“Ground-breaking...If this book serves as a wake-up call, it is truly one that could save lives. (Judith Guest, author of Ordinary People)

“A look inside the minds of a patient and his family, and...an excellent teaching tool for clinicians.” (Psychiatric News)

“Perceptive and instructive...a valuable document in the fight for better health care for our mentally ill children.” (Paul Raeburn, author of Acquainted with the Night)

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