An Interview with Julie Halpern, Author of Get Well Soon

Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern is a novel, but it was inspired by the author's real experiences. I'll let her tell you more about it in her own words.

I began struggling with major depression during my junior year of high school. At the time, I didn't know I was having panic attacks, but the fact that I couldn't leave the house or sit in my classrooms was very disturbing. I saw a therapist (who was Freudian and ineffective - she never once recognized my problem as panic attacks, so I thought I was just a freak), and I eventually had to be put on "homebound" schooling, where I worked mostly at home but took tests with a tutor back at my school.

At the beginning of my senior year, I was still having severe panic attacks. The therapist convinced my parents that the best thing for me would be hospitalization, and because I had changed so much for the worse, my parents agreed. My hospitalization has stayed with me, mainly because of all of the kooky and wonderful teens that shared my time. It was as though the adults were Charlie Brown adults - wah wah wah. My inmates were really who helped me get back to normal, ironically. Some of their stories were so strange, and my experiences remained vivid. I always knew I wanted to write a book about it.

If a teenager fears that she is suffering from depression, what should she do? Who should she tell?

I'm more of an expert on having depression that on what to do if you're depressed, but I do have some advice. The most important thing anyone with depression can do is to find something out there that makes you happy. Obviously, that something shouldn't be anything harmful, like drugs or alcohol or self-mutilation, but guilty pleasures have helped me through the worst of situations. As a teenager, I found music to be my savior. Without the angsty music to connect to, I don't know what I would have done.

These days, I have found that (don't laugh) QVC (one of the home shopping channels) helps me when I'm in a funk. I don't actually buy stuff, but people are so gracious to each other when they call in, even if it's fake, and it makes me happy to know that there are people out there shopping at all hours. Weird, I know.