Book Review: Why I Jumped

Why I Jumped By Tina Zahn & Wanda Dyson / Revell Tina Zahn had enough. The pain of emotional scars crippled her and she took what measures she thought were left. After a high-speed chase to the top of a bridge Tina got out of her car, ran to the edge and jumped. Miraculously, a state trooper was right behind and caught her wrist as she fell. Saved from suicide Tina began a deep healing process through her depression. If you or someone you love is struggling with depression, this book offers hope to seek help and overcome.

I started reading this book yesterday and could not put it down. I wanted to share it with you and tell you a story of my experience. What made me pick it up was that she was suffering from PPD (Postpartum Depression) and I thought this would be a book that I could really understand. You see, I suffered from PPD after my second child was born. I had the Baby Blues after my first child but nothing prepared me for what I experienced after my second child was born. For the first 9 months of my precious daughter's life I felt no connection to her. I would just hold her and cry because I did not have the connection with her that I did with my other daughter. My doctor tried to give me meds for the depression but the side effects were so bad that I stopped taking them, and I was afraid of harming my child because I was nursing her and I didn't want her to be effected by them. They made my skin crawl and I could just imagine what they would do to her if it came through my milk. I'm not trying to say that meds are not good and that they don't have their place, they do and they really help some people. It you are going through any type of depression you should seek help.  I know that other things that were going on around me contributed to the depths of my depression and I never though that I would make it through those days. If it were not for the grace of God and praying friends and family I would not have made it. I said all of this to say, there is hope for you if you will just hang on, God has a plan for your life, even when you think that it looks like there is no hope. There is hope, as long as you are alive there is hope for you and God loves you and He will be there for you even when all hope looks gone and even when everything around you falls apart all you have to do is reach out to him and he will pick you up.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jememiah 29:11