A Relentless Hope

A Relentless Hope
Gary E. Nelson
Cascade Books
ISBN: 1-55635-309-X
Non-Fiction, Health, Depression
Reviewed by Dr. Tami Brady

Teenagers are teenagers, aren’t they? They are moody. They are always tired. They transform from happy well adjusted young adults to angry and lippy menaces in two seconds.
Not so, says the author of A Relentless Hope. He’s seen a good number of these stereotypical teens in the families that he councils. He’s also experienced it first hand with his own son.
To the outside world, the author’s son Tom was the kid everyone wanted to have. He was a good student, an athlete, popular, polite, and just an all round nice guy. No one knew that Tom had to fight each morning to just get out of bed. That is, until his grades started slipping and his school absences began to outnumber his attendance days.
The culprit was clinical depression. Unfortunately, it’s something that is all too common with teenagers. The really scary part is that what most of us take for granted as “just being a teenager” is actually the manifestation of this disease. So instead of getting the help they need, many teens turn to alcohol and drugs to self medicate.