Still Life: A Memoir of Living Fully with Depression
"I stand on the edge of a cliff in my own bedroom."Gillian Marchenko continues her description of depression: "I must keep still. Otherwise I will plunge to my death. 'Please God, take this away,' I pray when I can."For Gillian, "dealing with depression" means learning to accept and treat it as a physical illness. In these pages she describes her journey through various therapies and medications to find a way to live with depression. She faces down the guilt of a wife and mother of four, two with special needs. How can she care for her family when she can't even get out of bed? Her story is real and raw, not one of quick fixes. But hope remains as she discovers that living with depression is still life.

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Still Life: A Memoir of Living Fully with Depression
"I stand on the edge of a cliff in my own bedroom."Gillian Marchenko continues her description of depression: "I must keep still. Otherwise I will plunge to my death. 'Please God, take this away,' I pray when I can."For Gillian, "dealing with depression" means learning to accept and treat it as a physical illness. In these pages she describes her journey through various therapies and medications to find a way to live with depression. She faces down the guilt of a wife and mother of four, two with special needs. How can she care for her family when she can't even get out of bed? Her story is real and raw, not one of quick fixes. But hope remains as she discovers that living with depression is still life.

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Still Life: A Memoir of Living Fully with Depression

Still Life: A Memoir of Living Fully with Depression

by Gillian Marchenko
Still Life: A Memoir of Living Fully with Depression

Still Life: A Memoir of Living Fully with Depression

by Gillian Marchenko

Paperback

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Overview

"I stand on the edge of a cliff in my own bedroom."Gillian Marchenko continues her description of depression: "I must keep still. Otherwise I will plunge to my death. 'Please God, take this away,' I pray when I can."For Gillian, "dealing with depression" means learning to accept and treat it as a physical illness. In these pages she describes her journey through various therapies and medications to find a way to live with depression. She faces down the guilt of a wife and mother of four, two with special needs. How can she care for her family when she can't even get out of bed? Her story is real and raw, not one of quick fixes. But hope remains as she discovers that living with depression is still life.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780830843244
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Publication date: 04/28/2016
Pages: 192
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gillian Marchenko is an author, speaker, wife, mother and advocate for individuals with special needs. Gillian's first book was Sun Shines Down, and she has written for publications such as Chicago Parent, Thriving Family and Today's Christian Woman. She and her husband, Sergei, spent four years as church planters with the Evangelical Free Church of America in Kiev, Ukraine, and they now live with their four daughters in St. Louis, Missouri.

Table of Contents

Part I: Bottom
1. Uncle
2. Why Are You Smiling?
3. Major Depressive Disorder
4. Who Am I?
5. Help

Part II: Borderline
6. Home
7. Bad Mom
8. Origins
9. Work the Program
10. The Color System
11. Will the Real Depression Please Stand Up?
12. Escape
13. The Lord's Prayer

Part III: Breakthroughs
14. Thaw
15. Polygamy
16. Hide
17. And Seek
18. Grow
19. Shame
20. Best Mom
21. Faith
22. Forced Praise
23. Still Life
Acknowledgments
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Alexandra Kuykendall

"Over the years I've learned much from Gillian Marchenko about what it's like to live and parent through clinical depression. I'm so glad others will now be able to learn from her in her newest memoir, Still Life. With her signature honesty and real-life faith, Gillian reminds us that God meets us in the hard, often debilitating places. For those who suffer from depression or those who love others that do, this book is a treasured story that articulates life and faith in the midst of this disease. You won't be sorry you've read it."

Kay Warren

"Such painfully beautiful writing. . . . I'm so very grateful you are here. I have deep respect for the courage and bravery it takes to keep choosing life."

Amy Simpson

"Gillian Marchenko generously lets us know her and walk her journey, and in the process we grow to love her. You won't find pat answers or bland reassurances here; you'll find a real and courageous woman, a serious fight with mental illness and faith-fueled hope. If you live with depression or care about someone who does, you must read this book."

Lucille Zimmerman

"If you've never struggled with depression but want to know what it's like, Still Life paints an accurate picture. If you have lived on that fearful ledge called depression, you'll find an ally in Gillian Marchenko. With heartfelt honesty, Marchenko describes life with double depression (Major Depressive Disorder and Dysthymia). In my dozen years as a licensed professional counselor, I've never read a more accurate book about depression and the toll it takes on the one who suffers, as well the impact on those closest to the sufferer. This book holds no cure, no magic wand, but it does extend hope."

Kelley Clink

"In this intimate memoir, Gillian Marchenko exposes her deepest, most painful struggles with humor and grace. More than a story of acceptance, compassion and hope; this book is a celebration of life."

Addie Zierman

"With unflinching honesty, Gillian Marchenko holds up a mirror to her own clinical depression and in doing so gives language and definition to something that often feels vague and dark. A must-read for anyone trying to understand their depressed spouse, friend, family member . . . or self."

Stephen Grcevich

"Still Life is a remarkably authentic story of perseverance and faithfulness. Gillian Marchenko's candor in sharing her experience with depression will be of great comfort to many who have bought into the falsehood that their suffering has resulted from a lack of faith. Gillian demonstrates how it is possible to faithfully fulfill God's purpose in life while experiencing the effects of a chronic illness that made getting out of bed a nearly insurmountable challenge on all too many days. Her authenticity in sharing her experiences offers encouragement and true hope to many who identify with her story."

Beth Slevcove

"Life with depression is still life, which means beauty and dignity are still found even when not felt. Life with depression is also a still life, a straightforward painting depicting commonplace objects, something that causes us to stop, look and listen, and if we do, to possibly realize that this ordinary object is infused with the beauty of God. Marchenko's book has been a still life for me, allowing me to stop and study the intricacies of a life with depression, and in doing so, to begin to see my own areas of darkness as places capable of framing a masterpiece."

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