Published on the Deaf Auntie website on August 30th 2013, a website by Laraine Callow.
Sunbathing in the Rain is one woman’s story of coping with depression. Through telling her story, she touches upon the different stages of depression, and offers advice about different ways to see and understand the illness. Engaging, readable and at times funny, it offers a hopeful view of what it means to live with depression.
Gwyneth Lewis, a Welsh poet, has struggled with depression since she was young. In this memoir-account, she writes about the different stages of her depression – from the beginning – sleep and inactivity – to the descent out at the end.
Interwoven into the book is advice – from small things such as painting your nails, to larger lessons such as learning to listen to what your depression is telling you about the changes you may need to make in your life.
In essence, Sunbathing in the Rain is about depression as a temporary space in which to adjust better to your life, a kind of painful but essential rest in order to take stock of what matters the most to you. The thread of hope in this book – that you can survive depression – is the most important and essential lesson of them all. A book for those needing comfort and advice, and wanting to understand depression better.
Cats and Chocolate 