About the Book
The off-the-wall, heartbreaking, and often hilarious tale of a correspondent reporting from was while also battling his lifelong nemesis--chronic depression.
His own chemistry was his worst enemy, and it took John Falk from the wilds of Garden City to sniper-infested Sarajevo during one of the most savage conflicts in recent memory. But through it all, he kept reaching out for the life, love, and friendship that his illness had made impossible. Hello to All That is his story--the crazed, comic, and hopeful tale of a guy who never surrendered.
Falk was an average Long Island kid, until depression trapped him, at age twelve, in a lonely world. Ashamed and afraid, he said nothing and tried to keep going with tips from his big, loud, loyal family. By twenty-four, he was all alone, living in his parents' attic, surviving on the books by war correspondents that provided his only escape from the emptiness he felt. When he found a bluepill called Zoloft, he thought his struggle was over. But it took a journey to Sarajevo--where he set out to make his name as a reporter--to show him how far he still had to go.
John Falk's journey has never been predictable. Neither is his moving, outrageous, and sometimes suspenseful memoir. Here is the tale of a real man's fight to defeat his greatest enemy, connect, cure himself, and finally, finally live.
This book is available from Amazon.com
About the Author
Among psychologists today, John Falk is known as patient X, and the story of his recovery from chronic depression is used to inspire hope in other patients. He is also a law school graduate and freelance journalist who survived the rough-and-tumble of reporting from the front in Sarajevo. An article he wrote for Details magazine, entitled "Shot Through the Heart," became an HBO movie and won a Peabody Award for Best Cable Movie of the Year.
The Review
Imagine 2 stories, 2 people, 2 lives.
One filled with the blackness of depression. Living in a self-imposed prison, escaping through books - wanting more - never knowing or thinking that is possible.
The other life is filled with the madness and craziness of war. Bullets, deadlines, violence and chaos.
Imagine these being the same person.
John Falk's story is almost unbelievable. It is outrageous, crazy, exciting and chaotic. That's what makes it such a great read.
Mostly, it is proof once again that we do control our own destinies. Even when we have lost all control.
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