D#3, HW#3 - Writer's Place in the Rhetorical Situation

The question of how to treat depression is interesting to me because I have direct personal experience with it. In 2000, I was diagnosed with "recurring major depression", and spent the next year in treatment for it. It didn't recur until late 2006, when I sweated through another bout, this time without treatment. I knew it was a widespread disorder, mostly just from talking to people around me. Many people I talked to had dealt with it, either directly or not. Based on what I know now, my educated guess is that a combination of medication and "talk" therapy is most efficacious for cases of depression, but one goal of writing this paper is to examine current conversations to support and/or revise that stance. I was surprised to learn that electroconvulsive ("shock") therapy is being used to treat depression. I'm also surprised by the universality of the disorder, and yet specific descriptions of symptoms by patients tend to be so consistent. It's important to me that I research this topic properly for myself, as someone who suffers from the disorder, and for my audience, many of whom may have experience with it but not have quality information with which to make sound decisions. I need to make sure that my perspective as someone who has experienced the disorder firsthand does not enable me to alienate an audience of those people who have not experienced it.