Reddit reviews The Noonday Demon: An Atlas Of Depression

Since the topic has come up before about what books RM has read, I figured I would share every time a new one is revealed. Today he told a fan at a fansign that his current favorite is The Noonday Demon. Here's the description from Amazon:

> The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policymakers and politicians, drug designers and philosophers, Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease. He confronts the challenge of defining the illness and describes the vast range of available medications, the efficacy of alternative treatments, and the impact the malady has had on various demographic populations around the world and throughout history. He also explores the thorny patch of moral and ethical questions posed by emerging biological explanations for mental illness.

A lot of people don't understand anxiety/depression. They think it's a character flaw. Just get over it. I encourage you to roll your eyes and know that they don't REALLY know what it's like.

I don't know if this will help redeem "Ask Reddit" but it seems like a lot of people "get it" in this thread.
Ask Reddit - Depression

Sometimes I want people to "get it". Sometimes I don't. I don't wish anxiety/depression on anyone. Although, everyone wants to be understood.

For people, that don't get it, that do want to get it, I recommend the Noon Day Demon. I will be honest, I started to read it when I was VERY depressed and couldn't finish it. But if the reader has no depression, it will at least paint a picture for them.

>Mental illnesses are fixed - people have to leave them behind and be made to feel like they are in control of their own destiny rather than the illness.

Slight note though - this statement is pretty untrue, at least from my limited experience and knowledge. For at least my OCD (or at least OCD-like symptoms and anxiety) and probably many others', I know that there is no cure, only management of symptoms, of which acceptance of anxiety and symptoms is a critical part. And certain peoples' depression are unfortunately lifelong disorders which medication and therapy can only manage, never eliminate. So looking for a "fix" of mental illnesses is not necessarily the best approach in a lot of cases. A lot of other stuff like bipolar, schizophrenia - you can quite literally never rid yourself of, only manage. Also, adopting the mindset of "getting rid" of a mental illness is risky because it sets the patient up for disappointment if (oftentimes unrealistic) expectations are met, and it is very hard to predict recovery or prognosis in many cases. Not to mention that the brain is a very complex and interconnected system, and often dysfunction is a lot of times a hyperextension of function (the classic example being GAD a disorder accentuating the regular flight or fight response), so "getting rid" of a disorder to the point that Madeline tried at first (removing Badeline) is both unhealthy and generally impossible.

Control is an especially dangerous concept to hunt - especially for OCD sufferers, whose entire disorder is based on a fruitless search for control and certainty - but also for anxiety patients in general, who more often than not have to learn to let go of control than steer their lives 100% the way they want. Of course, having a general handle on life is a good thing. But absolute control or control to the degree that our often-messed up brains want...not so much. Acceptance is the antidote to anxiety - not acceptance as in buying into it, but a mindful acceptance, of acknowledging the feeling and that it’s ok and uncontrollable to an extent, but de-fusing from it and coexisting with it (the principle of ACT, and similarly though not quite the same, radical acceptance).

Anyways, thanks for listening to me rant. tl;dr: More often than not it's healthier and more realistic to learn to "manage" or "treat" mental illness rather than "fix." And therefore, in conclusion - the accept-it-as-part-of-yourself parable of Celeste DOES apply to mental illness in general and not just gender identity.