The Noonday Demon

An Atlas Of Depression

By: Andrew Solomon

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

The Noonday Demon is Andrew Solomon’s National Book Award-winning, bestselling, and transformative masterpiece on depression—“the book for a generation, elegantly written, meticulously researched, empathetic, and enlightening” (Time)—now with a major new chapter covering recently introduced and novel treatments, suicide and anti-depressants, pregnancy and depression, and much more.

The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policy makers and politicians, drug designers, and philosophers, Andrew Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease as well as the reasons for hope. He confronts the challenge of defining the illness and describes the vast range of available medications and treatments, and the impact the malady has on various demographic populations—around the world and throughout history. He also explores the thorny patch of moral and ethical questions posed by biological explanations for mental illness. With uncommon humanity, candor, wit and erudition, award-winning author Solomon takes readers on a journey of incomparable range and resonance into the most pervasive of family secrets. His contribution to our understanding not only of mental illness but also of the human condition is truly stunning.

LOVE this book

What made the experience of listening to The Noonday Demon the most enjoyable?

The perspective is very interesting - I like that he discusses his own experiences but then also provides the experiences of others. Also, including objective information helps maintain an unbiased view.

Who was your favorite character and why?

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What does Barrett Whitener bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He reminds me of the author so I am able to picture him in the scenes/experiences in the book more easily.

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

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Any additional comments?

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Informational but not for everyone

I do not suffer from depression but my family does. I have a much better understanding of what is going on in their head. It doesn’t make any sense to me but that’s why I read this book. It gave me a different perspective that I would have not gotten on my own. Also what is possible to expect from them. It really opened my eyes even though I have seen the effects of depression by hearing more of the internal dialogue from the people he interviews.

I wouldn’t recommend someone who is depressed read this book because it is very dark and I would worry it could give them more ideas. Or make there depression worse.

Great content marred by narration

Wonderful, comprehensive read but the narrator should have learned how to pronounce the names of psychiatric meds and other key words correctly before taking this book on. Mispronounced Depakote, Nardil and other meds multiple times which is grating to listen to as well as other names like Kraepelin and, astonishingly the word Haitian (pronounced Ha-yee-tian). Where were the editors or the author in this? I’m a psychiatrist so listened to this book from a different vantage point but appreciated the wonderful review and synthesis of data and especially the personal stories which conveyed the enormous suffering and toll depression takes.

extremely helpful breakdown of depression!

whether you suffer from depression yourself, which I do from time to time, or have a loved one who does, I believe that this book has information in it that can help everyone. while parts of the book made me say, boo, overall the entire book enlighten me and the reality of life is that sometimes parts of our life or unpleasant. my specific take away from this book is that we are all only human, we all have our frailties and Imperfections, and as a society and the universe we need to embrace one another's weaknesses to help us get through it all.

101 new ways to view depression

This is the magnum opus on the subject from a sufferer, researcher, advocate and acclaimed writer. Too broad to be self help, I wd especially recommend to the treatment community and especially anyone close to someone afflicted. You'll drop that "pity party" and "you're just lazy" B.S. forever.