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Night Falls Fast : Understanding Suicide (Vintage) :: 0375701478
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| "Suicide is a particularly awful way to die: the mental suffering leading up to it is usually prolonged, intense, and unpalliated," writes Kay Redfield Jamison. "There is no morphine equivalent to ease the acute pain, and death not uncommonly is violent and grisly." Jamison has studied manic-depressive illness and suicide both professionally--and personally. She first planned her own suicide at 17; she attempted to carry it out at 28. Now professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, she explores the complex psychology of suicide, especially in people younger than 40: why it occurs, why it is one of our most significant health problems, and how it can be prevented. Jamison discusses manic-depression, suicide in different cultures and eras, suicide notes (they "promise more than they deliver"), methods, preventive treatments, and the devastating effects on loved ones. She explores what type of person commits suicide, and why, and when. She illustrates her points with detailed anecdotes about people who have attempted or committed suicide, some famous, some ordinary, many of them young. Not easy reading, either in subject or style, but you'll understand suicide better and be jolted by the intensity of depression that drives young people to it. --Joan Price Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
In 2001, I hiked from Florida to Quebec with a group of five others, to raise money for a hunger charity. When we passed through Boston, a friend of mine loaned me this book.
This book is a history of suicide, written by someone who has been manic-depressive and suicidal. The history is well-researched, complex, extensive, and disturbing. At times, reading this book was like wrapping my mouth around the exhaust pipe of a truck, with clouds of soul-corroding blackness filling every corner of my being. The book just contains so much sadness and grief: the sadness of the depressed people who have taken their own lives...the grief of their families...and the seemingly unreconcilable wrongness of a world where these sort of things happen all the time.
When I read it, everything I read seemed to be about my older sister, LeeAnne. The descriptions of depression all seemed to be about her, about how she behaved and talked, and in all of the accounts, the depressed people then killed themselves, or tried to. They died, and were gone forever.
It terrified me, but I was relieved to have read this, and I felt like I'd read it just in time. Night fell fast, the other hikers and I made camp in a rainstorm in a dense, wet grove of trees in New Brunswick, Canada. I left my tent and gear to go find a payphone at the flooded parking lot of a nearby truckstop. I called my sister and left a message; I told her I loved her, and told I would call her back that week.
In hindsight, I should have called every hour of every day until I reached her. In hindsight, I should have called every family member and had them call her too.
Because, two days later, my sister was dead.
Dead from too many Ibuprofen and sleeping pills.
Dead for the rest of my life.
Dead forever.
This book is a warning, a thoroughly researched, scientifically and emotionally valid look at depression and suicide.
Anyone who has a depressed family member or friend needs to read this. So does anyone who has been depressed themselves--though maybe not while depressed, as it might give you ideas.
Your soul will darken for a while after reading this, but you will also become more aware. My family and I use to joke about how my sister was always so gloomy, but this book will show you that depression is not something to laugh about.
It's serious.
This book could save your life, or the life of someone you love...if you read it soon enough...if you act on what you've read. If you act now.
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Author: Guest
The book was in good condition but it took longer to arrive than other Amazon books I've order
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Author: Guest
In addition to useful medical information, the book provides an enthralling review of some of history's most artistic and innovative individuals who were afflicted by depression. It is told with compassion, intelligence and great insight.
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Author: Guest
Jamison writes from both the heart and the brain, so-to-speak. It is obvious that she empathizes with the suicidal and their families, on many levels.
She is quite knowledgeable when it comes to the studies using PET scans, MRIs, blood tests, etc. showing the role that neurotransmitters play in depression and possibly suicide. She also survived a suicide attempt. I would put more faith in what she has to say about the implication of youth suicide, about the feelings leading up to it, and the devastation experienced by the survivors, than I would in just any PhD.
She uses many statistics and studies, cites observations from Emil Krapelin and Robert Burton, and includes suicide notes left behind. This makes for a very interesting and in-depth read.
I don't recommend it for those who currently have suicidal ideations though. It is hard enough to stomach if you have personal experience with the subject, but to read it while dealing with your sorrows and SIs can be dangerous.
Overall: Great book. Thoroughly researched. Many examples and evidence to support thesis.
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Author: Guest
How many have wept inwardly, unable to take that final step but so loathing the world in they never chose to exist? How many grapple with the blackest feelings of despair that constitute their hopeless personal prison? Such readers will find guidance and wisdom in this work by a master scholar who herself has understood the relief that suicide can offer -- she tried it herself. She describes the history of suicide, through case histories and the poignant notes that the literate have left behind to explain their dreadful act. Those of us who yearn, who strive, for some measure of peace or for the courage to take that leap into eternity will understand ourselves and our world better after reading this book.
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