River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope

by Naomi Judd, Marcia Wilkie (With)

Overview

Naomi Judd's life as a country music superstar has been nonstop success. But offstage, she has battled incredible adversity. Struggling through a childhood of harsh family secrets, the death of a young sibling, and absent emotional support, Naomi found herself reluctantly married and an expectant mother at age seventeen. Four years later, she was a single mom of two, who survived being beaten and raped, and was abandoned without any financial support and nowhere to turn in Hollywood, CA.

Naomi has always been a survivor: She put herself through nursing school to support her young daughters, then took a courageous chance by moving to Nashville to pursue their fantastic dream of careers in country music. Her leap of faith paid off, and Naomi and her daughter Wynonna became The Judds, soon ranking with country music's biggest stars, selling more than 20 million records and winning six Grammys.

At the height of the singing duo's popularity, Naomi was given three years to live after being diagnosed with the previously incurable Hepatitis C. Miraculously, she overcame that too and was pronounced completely cured five years later.

But Naomi was still to face her most desperate fight yet. After finishing a tour with Wynonna in 2011, she began a three-year battle with Severe Treatment Resistant Depression and anxiety. She suffered through frustrating and dangerous roller-coaster effects with antidepressants and other drugs, often terrifying therapies and, at her absolute lowest points, thoughts of suicide. But Naomi persevered once again. RIVER OF TIME is her poignant message of hope to anyone whose life has been scarred by trauma.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455595730
Publisher:	Center Street
Publication date:	12/05/2017
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	508,704
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

NAOMI JUDD is a country music superstar and Grammy Award winning songwriter, best known as half of The Judds singing duo with her daughter Wynonna. The Judds have scored fifteen #1 hits and received more than sixty industry awards, including six Grammy Awards and seven consecutive CMA Vocal Group of the Year trophies. She has written three best-selling books and is an in-demand keynote speaker on topics of health, humanitarian issues, and community activism. Naomi Judd is also the mother of actress and activist Ashley Judd. Naomi and her husband, singer Larry Strickland, reside in the Nashville area.

MARCIA WILKIE is a three-time New York Times bestselling co-author, and a versatile writer with credits in television, radio, advertising, print media, speech writing, and theater.

Table of Contents

Foreword Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Shhh… Don't Tell a Soul 11

Chapter 2 Leaving Home 23

Chapter 3 Who Turned Off the Spotlight? 35

Chapter 4 Potato Salad on the Hood of the Car 49

Chapter 5 One Pill Makes You Larger and One Pill Makes You Small 63

Chapter 6 The Future Isn't What it Used to Be 75

Chapter 7 Do Your Genes Fit? 85

Chapter 8 Paging Doctor Schulz 99

Chapter 9 The Cuckoo's Nest 111

Chapter 10 The Trauma Egg 123

Chapter 11 Reliving the Past 139

Chapter 12 The Last Dirty Secret 149

Chapter 13 On the Good Ship Lollipop 163

Chapter 14 May I Borrow Your Hammer? 173

Chapter 15 When You Live in a Glass House 187

Chapter 16 Somewhere, Upon Some Bright New Dawn… 199

Chapter 17 Radical Acceptance 213

Chapter 18 What Michelangelo Knew 231

Chapter 19 Every Ending Is a New Beginning 247

Chapter 20 The Toothpaste Is Out of the Tube 261

Postscript: Bridge? What Bridge? 283

A Note from Dr. Jerrold Rosenbaum 287

Acknowledgments 289

Index 293

Editorial Reviews

"I've known Naomi Judd for 25 years as a woman of indomitable strength and courage. Now she has been brave enough to write about her very personal struggle with severe depression and anxiety. RIVER OF TIME brings a message of hope to the millions of Americans who suffer from emotional illness. I recommend it."

- Andrew Weil, M.D.

—-

"In our family, my mother has a well-earned reputation for being thoughtful and caring. Even as a small girl, I'm told, she remembered every relative's birthday when most kids know (and are concerned with!) only their own.

This book is another iteration of her longing for connection and belonging. Our greatest need is to be known in our experience, to be witnessed and accepted as we are in this moment. In RIVER OF TIME she shares her journey through a harrowing tempest of treatment-resistant depression. Perhaps the details differ, but you may recognize yourself, or someone you love, in her battle. Depression is an epidemic in our country, a profound financial and emotional public health burden. The toll on us, the loved ones, must be addressed, too. As I watched Mom and Pop wade through the sucking mire of depression, I was deeply thankful that there was also help for us family members.

May this book serve you in the way my brave mother hopes it may."—Ashley Judd, humanitarian, writer, and actor

From the Publisher