On February 11, 2020, award winning writer and lecturer Dr. Andrew Solomon examined depression in both personal and scientific of terms. Drawing on his own longtime struggle with depression and interviews with fellow sufferers and doctors, Solomon revealed the subtleties, the complexities, and the agony of this disease.
Solomon's memoir, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, won the National Book Award, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and a worldwide bestseller, published in more than twenty languages. He is also the acclaimed author of Far From the Tree: Parents, Children & the Search for Identity, an examination of the means by which families accommodate children with physical, mental and social disabilities and how these unusual situations can be invested with love. A regular contributor to NPR, The New York Times and many other publications, Dr. Solomon is the founder of the Solomon Research Fellowships in LGBT Studies at Yale University and is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University.
Board member shares takeaway from program about depression
Glenbard Parent Series hosted writer and lecturer Dr Andrew Solomon in a presentation based on his best-selling book, “The Noonday Demon: The Secret Sadness of Depression.” Glenbard District 87 Board of Education member Margaret DeLaRosa shared the following takeaway: “Andrew Solomon offered an enlightening and powerful description of his depression and shared that the opposite of depression is not happiness but vitality. While depression can be cyclical, exhausting and debilitating, it is treatable but not talking about it really does make it worse. As parents, our children need to feel heard and know our love is strong. “Dealing with depression effectively is a mark not of weakness but of strength.”
Resources
Andrew Solomon on WGN television morning show on February 11, 2020 HERE
Video: Facing Down the Noonday Demon, Andrew Solomon describes the experience of facing down depression. Recorded at The Tabernacle, London, February 29, 2016 HERE.
TED talk: Andrew Solomon on Love, no matter what HERE
Andrew Solomon: LOVE, No Matter What: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (FAN: 12/4/13)
Andrew Solomon's web site HERE