Depression Saved My Life

Book excerpt: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17.5 million Americans suffer from clinical depression. Each year, more than 132,000 people will consider suicide as a way out of depression and over 30,000 of them will succeed. The author became a statistic of the first two categories and was miraculously saved from the third. Ironically, he was reborn to a new reality through the intervention of a terminally ill friend as he wrote his school-aged son a desperate suicide letter. The letter grew longer and longer and eventually changed course and became this book. Something tragic and sad became an inspirational story of survival and perspective. This book is a riveting first hand account of not only depression, but more importantly his journey into and out of depression. The author describes his decent and climb from depression to his son in heartbreaking detail, from his childhood in the tough streets of Philadelphia to his battle with cancer, the deaths of his sister, mother and two best friends, all in a relatively short period of time. What make this book unique are the strategically intertwined positive lessons that were learned while facing these tragic, life-altering events. These lessons, appropriately named "Life Lessons", are heartfelt loving messages from a father to his son illustrating what the author believes to be the truths of life and what is truly important to him today. Desperate to pass on these imperative messages to the most important person in his world, the author expresses his feelings on such subjects as true success, stress and pressure, love, and family.