Short description
A searing, raw memoir of depression that is ultimately uplifting and inspiring
Long description
I believe that we learn through stories. We learn that we are not alone. Sally Brampton is an optimist. The founding editor of Elle, a successful journalist and novelist, she loves gardening, friends and life. She is also a depressive. Shoot the Damn Dog is a memoir of her journey through depression. For four years her life stood still, mired in the tears, despair and desperate loneliness of mental illness. The brief joy of a stumbled recovery was cruelly, swiftly followed by a relapse into a deeper darkness, alcohol abuse and two suicide attempts. Hers is a story at once deeply personal and profoundly universal which, by way of shared experience, offers a connection to those who feel so terribly alone and ashamed. Unflinching and humble in its honesty, Shoot the Damn Dog blasts the stigma of depression as a character failing or moral flaw and confronts the terrifying illness Winston Churchill called the black dog, an illness that humiliates, punishes and isolates its sufferers. It is also a practical book, offering ideas about what might help. There are no promises, only suggestions: small steps towards understanding and managing this illness and slowly coming back into the light. With its raw, understated eloquence, this book will speak volumes to any person whose life has been haunted by depression , as well as offering help and understanding to those whose loved ones suffer from this debilitating condition.
Review
Sobering account of a British fashion writer's struggles with alcoholism and clinical depression.The daughter of an oil-industry executive whose work took him to posts throughout the world, Brampton (Love, Always, 2000, etc.) spent much of her childhood in the Middle East, South America and Africa. In a debut memoir weakened in early chapters by a deluge of dull scientific data on depression, the author asserts that her peripatetic upbringing in an emotionless family left her vulnerable to mental illness and dependency on alcohol. Unable to shake her increasingly dark moods and daily consumption of at least two bottles of wine, Brampton eventually sought professional help. She writes with arch and revealing wit about her on-again-off-again odyssey with antidepressants, detox centers, in-patient psychiatric facilities, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and addiction therapy sessions (during which participants bandied Group of Drunks as an acronym for God). Brampton is especially skilled at detailing the self-delusion, denial and furtive uncontrolled drinking that, she notes, compound the real and imagined pain of those in the grips of alcoholism and despair. She devotes a chilling chapter to her ultimately ill-fated decision to withdraw cold turkey from prescription drugs that had kept her, despite complications, on a relatively even keel. Writing with stoic, self-mocking charm, she attributes her failed suicide attempts to unreliable Internet chatter on the best methods to achieve a fatal overdose. Still, Brampton notes that her triumphs as an acclaimed journalist helped her to maintain a nurturing, upbeat relationship with her teenage daughter through it all. In closing passages, the author writes of a hard-won recovery program that includes yoga, transcendental meditation, gardening, walking, B vitamins and abstinence from booze. She also married a man she'd distanced during the full-throttle phase of her disease.A tough opening slog gives way to a compelling story. (Kirkus Reviews)