Trouble in My Head: A Young Girl's Fight with Depression - Softcover

Mathilde Monaque is a 17-year-old girl who developed severe depression at the age of 14. She is the eldest in a family of six and lives in France.

Grade 7 Up—Monaque tells her own story of depression, which began at age 14. Recounting her experience from memory, the teen attempts to discern what caused the illness as well as to explain the process she went through to overcome it. Beginning with a physical illness that caused her to be separated from friends, Monaque's depression eventually manifested itself as anorexia and resulted in a monthlong stay in a mental-health facility for adolescents. Although she resisted medication, it became part of her therapy for more than a year. While the young woman's extreme introspection, which involves dissecting every thought and action, is intriguing in a clinical sense, the narrative becomes tedious in places. For example, the details of the first day after placement in the hospital take nearly one-fourth of the book. Monaque's story has a happy ending as she successfully battled her problems, finished school, and planned a career in medicine, perhaps as a psychiatrist. She is bright and articulate and paints a vivid picture of what depression feels like from the inside.—Wendy Smith-D'Arezzo, Loyola College, Baltimore, MD END