The valedictorian of being dead : the true story of dying ten times to live Cover Image

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The valedictorian of being dead : the true story of dying ten times to live / Heather B. Armstrong.

ISBN: 1501197045
ISBN: 9781501197048
Physical Description: xii, 244 pages ; 24 cm
Edition: First Gallery Books hardcover edition.
Publisher: New York : Gallery Books, 2019.

Summary:

From New York Times bestselling author and blogger Heather Armstrong comes an honest and irreverent memoir about her experience as the third person ever to participate in an experimental treatment for depression involving ten rounds of a chemically induced coma approximating brain death.

"For years, Heather B. Armstrong has alluded to her struggle with depression on her website, dooce. It's scattered throughout her archive, where it weaves its way through posts about pop culture, music, and motherhood. But in 2016, Heather found herself in the depths of a depression she just couldn't shake, an episode darker and longer than anything she had previously experienced... Heather decided to risk it all by participating in an experimental clinical trial involving a chemically induced coma approximating brain death. Now, for the first time, Heather recalls the torturous eighteen months of suicidal depression she endured and the month-long experimental study in which doctors used propofol anesthesia to quiet all brain activity for a full fifteen minutes before bringing her back from a flatline. Ten times. The experience wasn't easy. Not for Heather or her family. But a switch was flipped, and Heather hasn't experienced a single moment of suicidal depression since."-- provided by publisher.