This is an exhilarating, passionate, true-to-life story, a heartwarming, sensitive, sad, and even humorous story about a woman's lifetime battle with severe, chronic depression. People ask, should we continue to have hope for this illness, because there are always new discoveries, treatments, and medications being brought to the surface, or should we just accept the illness as a way of life? I chose hope! When feeling good and functioning normally, I vowed to myself that I would never use the expression "put me out of my misery" in a casual sense again. This is because I really learned what true misery is. Let it be known that this was the author's true experience on all accounts. However, it is not necessarily the usual course of action this illness takes. The author's case was exceptional in that her response to most treatments was unsuccessful or did not last more than a year or two.