The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children, & Struggling with Depression

Tracy Thompson, an award-winning Washington Post reporter, was hospitalized on suicide watch at age thirty-four during a severe depressive episode. This crisis marked the end of over twenty years of untreated depression and led her to write about the disease. Her previous book addressed depression and challenged common misconceptions about it. Thompson believed she had learned to manage her illness, particularly after finding a stable marriage. However, when she became a mother, depression returned with intensity. She discovered that her previous coping strategies were inadequate for maternal depression, which she found to be distinctly different from other forms of the illness. Thompson conducted extensive research into the problem, examining recent scientific findings and collecting accounts from nearly 400 mothers experiencing depression. Her investigation revealed the scope of the issue: nearly 12 million of the 19 million Americans with depression annually are women, who experience depression at roughly twice the rate of men. Women are most frequently affected between ages twenty-five and forty-four—the primary childbearing years. This book combines memoir and journalism to examine maternal depression as a chronic condition with significant effects on both mother and child. It serves as a resource for women navigating depression during what are typically considered their most fulfilling years.