The Noonday Demon

“Grief is depression in proportion to circumstance; depression is grief out of proportion to circumstance.” 

― Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Andrew Solomon is one of the best writers I have ever encountered.

He also took the time to reply to the message I wrote him after reading, “The Noonday Demon". I thanked him for the care that he took in writing about depression, and for his honesty in disclosing his personal fight to the public. So he gets major brownie points for that.

Mr. Solomon’s honesty inspired me to open up about my history of depression and suicide attempts. If I never read his book, I do not believe that I would have had the courage to talk so openly about my life with mental illness.

His openness helped me understand my illness better, and I hope my writing and videos are doing the same for someone else.

If you do not understand depression and how callous a taskmaster it is, I highly recommend picking up a copy of “The Noonday Demon". You will finish the book a far more compassionate person that when you started. Even if you do not live with a mental illness, you will better understand what a loved one is going through, and how to be there for that person.

"The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality, and it was vitality that seemed to seep away from me in that moment." In a talk equal parts eloquent and devastating, writer Andrew Solomon takes you to the darkest corners of his mind during the years he battled depression.