Second Chasm

"The Second Chasm" is a story that belongs to the twenty million people in the United States alone who suffer from depression. Six years after an emotionally devastating divorce, the author read "The Cracker Factory" and learned that the symptoms she had experienced were classical among those who are clinically depressed. This knowledge brought her healing and self-understanding. Just five years after reading the book, her second husband was killed in an accident, and soon after, she descended into a second chasm of depression. Perhaps the most compelling feature of "The Second Chasm" is that it was written by an average person who experiences grief not unlike that of so many others. It is not a story of the greatest tragedy or the most difficult challenge; rather, it is the story of a common tragedy and an all-too familiar challenge. It is unique because it bridges two of the most common losses faced in this world: divorce and widowhood. The two separate chasms that resulted not from grief, but from depression, were born of the same illness. The recoveries offer a message of hope, as she describes the journey from despair to healing.