The First Review is In!!!

My Side of Depression

Don Legun

Reviewed in Righter Monthly Review by Elizabeth Silance Ballard

Mr. Legun’s account of his experiences in the depths of clinical depression can easily be read in less than thirty minutes. It offers insights which might be valuable to those who have loved ones suffering from undiagnosed depression. Not a mental health professional, he is not burdened by professional jargon and speaks from the heart in a sincere effort to help others.

He is a “wounded healer” who has overcome the aftereffects of trauma leading to the onset of his difficulties, difficulties which were overwhelming and frightening, not only to himself but to those around him. His purpose for the book is simply to assure others that they are not alone, that help is available and that there is a way out of the quagmire of life for those who suffer with mental and emotional illnesses which still carry a bit of stigma in society.

He gives full credit to his wife who stood by him all through the years and sought continually to find ways to help him, always showing that she loved and cared. Particularly poignant was her successful effort to help the author’s father to understand what his son was experiencing. Being like all parents who know the capabilities of their child, he urged his son to basically straighten up, get a job, be a man and everything would be all right. How many of us have not thought, or even said, the same thing to our own children?

 It would have been especially frustrating for a father who had seen his son through four years of college and watched with pride as he made his way successfully through a ten year career as an officer in the U.S. Navy apparently hit a downhill slide, his ability to function in daily life deteriorating.  At this point, many relationships could easily be broken, never to be mended. The author’s wife, however, took the time to find material which helped Dad to understand that his son was genuinely suffering and unable to do the things he knew he should be doing. His crippling was not of a limb, but of the brain.

His acceptance that the brain’s chemical imbalance would have to be offset by medication was not an easy one; and, of course, not all cases of clinical depression are treated with medication. Only a mental health professional can make that determination. The author urges anyone who is having the same symptoms he had to seek out a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist who can give that help. For families whose loved ones are unable to help themselves in these matters, Mr. Legun has included a list of sources which offer  help to all concerned.

 The cover illustration, also done by the author, is very touching and clearly shows the feelings one with clinical depression experiences almost  every waking moment: A sad person, sitting alone facing a corner with high walls on either side, turned away from a world which has become impossible to face and a future which seems totally blocked. The inside of the book, however, offers hope and way out, back into Life.