feeling deeply alone while everybody else moved on with his
or her daily activities. This sort of depression was in the same category as the kind of
depression that I went through. I was loved by my friends and family, and I acknowledged it to
them, but when I was alone in my room, my true feelings emerged. I felt that I couldn't associate
with their love, that their love wasn't enough to fill the gap in my soul which the drugs that I was
doing had created. Deep down inside I knew that the hole inside of me could only be filled by
the love that Jesus Christ had to offer, which I acknowledged to my youth pastor, but I was
afraid to take that step, so I sat alone and suffered with my emptiness until the day came that I
could accept the truth, which was no short ride, and still is not completely over. Karp tried a
range of therapeutic avenues from holistic health to weekends spent learning the "relaxation
response." He thought the key to turning things around was to find the right therapist including
the perfect medication. Through countless experiments with therapist and medications Karp
came to grips that depression would be a part of his life forever no matter how hard he
searched for the so called miracle cure. "As I see it, efforts to authoritatively uncover the cause
of depression are doomed to failure" (I. P.14. David Karp.)
His book is directed to letting people speak about their personal experiences with depression,
and the toll it has taken on their life. He has elected to do in-depth interviews with fifty people
who have professional been diagnosed with depression. Each interview tells a unique story and
reveals common themes in the lives of depressed people. These personal accounts with
depression where overwhelmingly to me. His analysis throughout the book is informed on
"Symbolic interaction theory." "A basic principle of symbolic interaction is that all objects, ...