Dog Medicine

How My Dog Saved Me from Myself

By: Julie Barton

Narrated by: Julie Barton

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

An honest and deeply moving debut memoir about a young woman's battle with depression and how her dog saved her life.

At 22 Julie Barton collapsed on her kitchen floor in Manhattan. She was one year out of college and severely depressed. Summoned by Julie's incoherent phone call, her mother raced from Ohio to New York and took her home.

Haunted by troubling childhood memories, Julie continued to sink into suicidal depression. Psychiatrists, therapists, and family tried to intervene, but nothing reached her until the day she decided to do one hopeful thing: adopt a golden retriever puppy she named Bunker.

Dog Medicine captures the anguish of depression, the slow path to recovery, the beauty of forgiveness, and the astonishing ways animals can help heal even the most broken hearts and minds.

©2016 Julie Barton (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Dog Medicine offers a carefully measured appreciation of life, in which every step forward is a victory worth celebrating, and every dark day is something that must be endured before moving on. Barton’s story of her life with Bunker is truly moving, and provides heartwarming proof of the ability of pets to alter our lives for the better.” (San Francisco Book Review)

“A heartfelt page-turner about depression and how dogs can save us from ourselves.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“You may think you’re about to read a book about a charming dog, or about struggling with identity in your twenties, or about how a young woman pulls herself together after a diagnosis of depression. But you’d be wrong. Dog Medicine is a love story - a great big beautiful honest touching intoxicating riveting page-turning instruction manual on the palpable healing power of love and forgiveness. Every word in this book is as honest and courageous as any I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot.” (Robin Oliveira, New York Times best-selling author of My Name Is Mary Sutter)

PAWsitively, Paws down... Power of Dog Medicine

Where does Dog Medicine rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Julie Bartons rendering of her journey to the depths of depression and the powers of dog medicine in finding herself, life, and purpose is beyond moving and memorable. Her narration was beautiful and added an often palpable experience.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Bunker Barton, of course! All of the characters played key roles in Julies journey! Her raw honesty of all of their parts in her evolution were key.

Have you listened to any of Julie Barton’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not yet! But look forward to more work and narration.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Beyond sad, beyond pointless, beyond help, beyond hope...Nope, Dog Medicine!

Honest, at least

Would you listen to Dog Medicine again? Why?

Any additional comments?

Like another review says, Julie was probably not a great dog owner, and she is quite self-centered. But I think this book is honest because she didn't pretend that she was a considerate person during her depression time. Some sick people are really sick because they consider themselves normal. Julie Barton isn't one of them.

So beautiful.

It's hard to see through my tears to write this review. I loved this book so much. I'm gonna snuggle my Bunker extra tight tonight. The author's narration is beautiful, too.

Educational about ptsd. Sibling abuse but most important., how a loving dog can provide healing, giving wounded person purpose

Educational about ptsd, Sibling abuse but most important., how a loving dog can provide healing, giving a wounded person purpose

Amazing

I’ve read this book twice. Amazing and cried both times. You can tell Julie truly loved her dog and he was such a big part of her life. Anyone that has suffered with depression can relate to julie’s story, and anyone with pets can as well. Thank you for sharing Bunker with us

Simply beautiful.

I have never written a review yet have listened to many many books and have read probably a hundred reviews in order to find the books I'm searching for. This book moved me in a way like no other has. I'm an animal lover, dogs especially. But also someone who has suffered from bouts of depression. The bond between human and dog is mesmerizing to me. How an unspoken language of touch and emotion can speak a thousand silent words.
You will not be disappointed with this book.

Highly Recommend

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has experienced depression, either first hand or through a friend, and to those that have known the deep healing of an animal companion. The author narrates the memoir giving it a raw nature, so be warned that you won't find a sugar-coated version of what it's like to live with depression.

Much more than a dog story--moving, inspirational

Julie Barton has written a beautifully detailed description of what it is like to be clinically depressed and how she overcame this affliction. She does an excellent job of intertwining a wonderful and true story with both the background of her illness and the many variables that contributed to her recovery. It is far better to hear her own story of her progressive downward spiral into deep depression, how her own thoughts could sabotage her best efforts to behave "normally" than any psychology textbook I've ever read. And I have read a LOT of them culminating in a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology. My primary motivation for reading them, however, was for personal reasons as I also have struggled with clinical depression. I could easily relate to the author's feeling of helplessness and hopelessness before even recognizing that she had an illness. How her very intelligent and rational mind worked hard at convincing her emotions to feel differently but failing. How feeling guilty for feeling so sad kept her from seeking professional help earlier in her depression. All this and so much more make this book a monumental contribution to the understanding of clinically diagnosed depression and the resources available to treat it. The role of her beloved dog in the story is central to explaining how her depression unfolded over the years and how her journey to discovering how to manage her condition was enhanced by the love for and from that dog. The only criticism I have of the Audible version of this book is the author's reading of it. Her narration I found quite tedious at the beginning as it was so slow. Consequently, for the first time ever with an Audible book, I increased the narrative speed to compensate for the labored monotone of her voice. That made a big difference. Reading a story requires acting skill as most Audible narrators demonstrate, even when the story is told in the first person tense. It requires a varied use of tonality and expression that was mostly absent in this case. The author might reconsider recording this outstanding book with a professional narrator. I thought the author's writing was lovely at drawing intricate illustrations of visual images both of her environment and of her mental state. Being a former Seattle resident myself also added to my reading pleasure as much of the story takes place here and the references to familiar sites in and around the city gave the story even more depth. Lastly, the author wrapped up her story in a totally satisfying way,leaving no lingering questions unanswered. I very much appreciated her manner of making the finale real and complete. I highly recommend this book to dog lovers and anyone who has ever wondered about their own inexplicable tendency to feel very sad for lengthy periods of time for no "apparent reason." This book could shed a klieg light on that pit of darkness and illuminate a pathway out of it.

Yes love it

Be ready for the ending, it's a hard one but this book is amazing. I can count how many times I've listened to it

Unforgettable MUST-Read. Bravo, Julie.

Loved every second of this author-read narration...
You will, too. Bring tissues. Impossible not to weep, if her story has any parallels to you &/or any of your animals.
Well Done..Phenomenally so.