Nuland’s recovery story is similar to the experiences of many people who have been through this road. He captured those powerful moments extremely well– the dreadful ones that led to being in a mental hospital and the exciting, even amusing ones that brought him back. There are several that can resonate for many.
During the TED Talk, he described the steady downfall of his work life. Even while fraught each day to get up from bed and consumed by obsessions, worries and feelings of worthlessness, he tried to keep up the idea of his surgical practice at a university hospital. Yet, his depression was not a secret, and others gradually stopped referring patients to him. As he said during his talk, “I couldn’t work…I had no more patients,” many people with depression can relate to this that they had been so helpless to stop.
The young psychiatrist who was treating him while he was hospitalized proved to be a lasting source of guidance, especially when he felt some relapse of depression in later years. This was the doctor who saved him from a lobotomy that would have possibly killed or ended him. He was the only one on the medical staff that was sure Neuland could be treated and cured with electroconvulsive therapy – it worked during the twentieth session.
The way he spoke makes it seem as though he no longer has depression, but only he and those around him truly know.
To watch his TED Talk, click here.
From An Afro-dominican Woman's Point of View 