On Depression: Drugs, Diagnosis, and Despair in the Modern World

Changed my life!

I wish there was an Audible version of this book. I just read it again this morning for the third or fourth time in 14 months as I prepare to give a talk to inpatient nursing staff about the MSE, but would appreciate it more if I could listen to it while driving. It is a book that blew the flame of courage into the smoldering fire pit of my life during a time I was frequently working literally 24/7 when the computer system didn't crash at 10 pm, trying to keep up with paperwork and deeply frustrated with my situation as an outpatient psychiatrist in a poor rural area with an version of Epic described by one of my therapy/AODA colleagues who’d worked with it the University of WI-Madison version at a previous job as the ‘Fiat’ version of a ‘Cadillac’, and an installation with no psychiatrist input at all, as there wasn’t one there at the time. As a former programmer for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and super user for the installation of a new system at my previous job, I am not computer illiterate, but this system was getting the best of me, with, I soon discovered, no chance of changing it as it was leased through a bigger health group. However, this is a book that may not resonate with everyone, or one that perhaps you have to read it at the right moment, as there is great wisdom here, but it requires being open to honest soul-searching and deep reflection about the lives of self, patients and society on the part of the reader. If you are not familiar with the academic discipline of philosophy, it may seem difficult and irrelevant reading at first. It is worth persisting, taking in what you can at the moment and leaving the rest for another time through it if that seems worthwhile, as the book is a whole, and some of the concepts make more sense later. Dr. Ghaemi relates many things I knew from my various studies in the past but did not have time or energy to put into words related to modern medicine myself, as well as giving a historical perspective on the pr...