Imagine being so depressed that the only thing you can picture is just being dead. Life goes on, and you complete your daily tasks, but the constant desire to be dead is there all the time. Blogger Heather B. Armstrong faced just this type of life until her doctors offered her a choice; continue on the way she was, or experience a new therapy that literally would force her into a deep brain-pausing coma for a few minutes as kind of a reset. You read that right. The doctors offered an experimental treatment where a concoction of well known medications would briefly cause Heather’s brain to turn off and then back on like a computer for a total of ten separate treatments.
The Valedictorian of Being Dead sounds like something out of a futuristic novel, but it isn’t. Heather Armstrong’s candid autobiography of her experiences with extreme depression and anxiety is often a combination of dark humor and terror as she faces her treatments and the terrifying fear of what will happen if they don’t work. The story is certainly not an easy beach read, and some readers may find her descriptions too much to deal with. For readers who have that fun depression and anxiety combo, prepare to feel a sense of kinship and understanding as Armstrong chronicles the treatments, therapy, and medications that didn’t solve the problem up until this point. Armstrong’s candor and bravery in her writing help fight against the stigma of mental health.
The Valedictorian of Being Dead is available April 23, 2019.
