Depression Challenge the beast within yourself...and win -A Penetrating View of Depression and How One Person Conquered It - Softcover

Irwin, Cait

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966366514 ISBN 13: 9780966366518

Publisher: Avi Communications Inc, 1998

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"In our minds stalks a beast... a cruel, mean and wicked beast." So begins Cait Irwin's gentle guide to conquering depression--a book she began as a young teenager after being hospitalized for suicidal tendencies. Writing the book was part of her healing process, and she hopes reading the book will help others regain their mental health.

Irwin tells her story of how the "beast" of depression gradually took over her life, accompanying simple yet eloquent text with her own comic-style drawings. These honest sketches, packed with feeling (and surprisingly, humor), in combination with her frank account--set in type resembling handwriting--lend to the sense that Irwin is letting us read her journal. We witness how hard the struggle was for her, through psychological symptoms such as paranoia, frustration, and stress, and the physical manifestations of lack of appetite, blurriness of vision, and exhaustion. But we also see how she climbed out of the pit--the snarling beast first leashed, then muzzled, then reduced to a tiny speck--with the help of her family, doctors, and carefully calibrated medication. Irwin may be young and she may not have a medical degree, but she offers depressed readers something extremely valuable: the wisdom and compassion that comes with experience. --Brangien Davis

From the Back Cover

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CONQUERING THE BEAST WITHIN

"A marvelous and original book. The author's eloquence is matched by her powerful drawings, and together they make an extraordinary book about depression."
--Kay Redfield Jamison, bestselling author of Night Falls Fast and An Unquiet Mind

"Cait Irwin has written an extraordinary book, for young people, old people, for anyone who is suffering from depression or knows someone who is. . . . Ms. Irwin stretches a hand across the abyss and leads us safely home. Bravo! Read it now!"
--Danielle Steel, author of numerous bestsellers including His Bright Light, the story of her son's battle with manic depression

"Reading this book, I had conflicting feelings--of admiration at Cait's artistic accomplishment, and envy that someone so young could already be so wise. If you know a young adult who is engaged in a serious struggle with the Beast, he or she needs this book."
--Tracy Thompson, author of The Beast: A Journey Through Depression

"Cait's vivid recounting of her successful struggle with depression offers hope and encouragement to everyone fighting a mental illness."
--Rosalynn Carter, author ofHelping Someone with Mental Illness

"In offering readers a vivid image, Cait Irwin allows those with depression not to feel defined by their disorder. A book for people of all ages, it paints the isolation, fear, and misunderstanding of mental illness in provoking and recognizable strokes. A work of compassion and hope."
--Laurie Flynn, executive director, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill

Edition details

• Publisher: Avi Communications Inc
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0966366514
• ISBN 13: 9780966366518
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 102