Author(s): Sally Brampton

Biography/Memoir

I believe that we learn through stories. We learn that we are not alone. Sally Brampton is an optimist. The founding editor of "Elle", a successful journalist and novelist, she loves gardening, friends and life. She is also a depressive. "Shoot the Damn Dog" is a memoir of her journey through depression. For four years her life stood still, mired in the tears, despair and desperate loneliness of mental illness. The brief joy of a stumbled recovery was cruelly, swiftly followed by a relapse into a deeper darkness, alcohol abuse and two suicide attempts. Hers is a story at once deeply personal and profoundly universal which, by way of shared experience, offers a connection to those who feel so terribly alone and ashamed. Unflinching and humble in its honesty, "Shoot the Damn Dog" blasts the stigma of depression as a character failing or moral flaw and confronts the terrifying illness Winston Churchill called the black dog, an illness that humiliates, punishes and isolates its sufferers. It is also a practical book, offering ideas about what might help.