The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children and Struggling with Depression

No...I am not going to go one-by-one through my original posts to find my reruns, but this review bears (not "bares", Leigh, my homophone-phobic friend) repeating because Tracy Thompson is awesome, depression plagues mothers well beyond the post-partum phase and because I suffer from depression and want to be as open as possible if it can help just one person not go through what I have gone through. Also, Tracy was gracious enough to correspond with me, signed my copy of the book and sent me a signed book to give Kitty Dukakis when I met her.

The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children and Struggling with Depression is, to my knowledge, the only book to look at the serious illness of depression and how it affects mothers and their children.

The Ghost in the House will ring true for every mother who has struggled with depression, whether postpartum or other. It would also serve as a great resource for those who know or live with someone with depression.

Tracy Thompson pulls together and seamlessly blends her own experience as a mother who struggles with depression, the stories she gleaned from thousands of mothers who responded to her plea for women to share their experiences and hard scientific evidence about this illness and its impact on mothers who struggle with it and their families.

Far from being "depressing", this book gives hope by helping the reader understand the interplay of nature and nurture as well as a variety of insights on some of the solutions and strategies that have worked for others. Depression is a complex physiological illness that defies simplistic or pat answers and is further complicated by a mother's concerns about the impact of her illness on her children and on their psychological futures. Tracy Thompson encompasses all of this in The Ghost in the House.

Whether you personally struggle with depression, or even if you have an inkling of a suspicion that you do...or if you know anyone who is a Mom who you think might be struggling, you must read this book. I picked it up on Friday, finished it on Sunday. Since I do struggle with depression and have two children, I found it incredibly helpful. As a matter of fact, on Saturday night (while tailgating at the Dolphins game of all places) my ten year-old son asked if my depression would be passed down to him and because of what I had read in this book and I was able to give him an intelligent and well-founded answer!

I e-mailed Tracy Thompson to commend her on her book as well as her blog  Maternally Challenged She and I exchanged a couple of great e-mails. I have incredible respect for this author for her incredible candor and willingness to thumb her nose at any cultural stigma that may remain around the topic of depression and get it out there as a subject for discussion.

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The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children and Struggling with Depression is, to my knowledge, the only book to look at the serious illness of depression and how it affects mothers and their children.

The Ghost in the House will ring true for every mother who has struggled with depression, whether postpartum or other. It would also serve as a great resource for those who know or live with someone with depression.

Tracy Thompson pulls together and seamlessly blends her own experience as a mother who struggles with depression, the stories she gleaned from thousands of mothers who responded to her plea for women to share their experiences and hard scientific evidence about this illness and its impact on mothers who struggle with it and their families.

Far from being "depressing", this book gives hope by helping the reader understand the interplay of nature and nurture as well as a variety of insights on some of the solutions and strategies that have worked for others. Depression is a complex physiological illness that defies simplistic or pat answers and is further complicated by a mother's concerns about the impact of her illness on her children and on their psychological futures. Tracy Thompson encompasses all of this in The Ghost in the House.

Whether you personally struggle with depression, or even if you have an inkling of a suspicion that you do...or if you know anyone who is a Mom who you think might be struggling, you must read this book. I picked it up on Friday, finished it on Sunday. Since I do struggle with depression and have two children, I found it incredibly helpful. As a matter of fact, on Saturday night (while tailgating at the Dolphins game of all places) my ten year-old son asked if my depression would be passed down to him and because of what I had read in this book and I was able to give him an intelligent and well-founded answer!

I e-mailed Tracy Thompson to commend her on her book as well as her blog  Maternally Challenged She and I exchanged a couple of great e-mails. I have incredible respect for this author for her incredible candor and willingness to thumb her nose at any cultural stigma that may remain around the topic of depression and get it out there as a subject for discussion.

Comments

[leigh]

Before Flipper was born Ihad a few major depressive episodes that went away with drugs and excercise and, baically, time. But I was so afraid that I would have post-partum depression after her birth. Luckily, I didn't. I did tell my midwife that I was afraid, and they called me every two weeks or so to check up on me. the thing about depression is that it really CAN happen to anyone.