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Lundbeck Magazine 2009
11
Now I dare myself to
leave the house again
Yolanda has suffered from depression since she was very
young. But only now is she receiving the treatment that helps.
Yolanda is 52 years of age and lives in Mexico
City. She is the mother of three, and together
with her husband she operates a small
company that sells natural medicine.
Yolanda was only a teenager when she had
depression for the first time. At the time, she
decided that she would manage without help
– and certainly without medication.
“I didn’t know any better, and for many years
things went fairly well. But when my youngest
son became ill, I went into severe depression,”
Yolanda recounts. Her son was 16 years old
when he began behaving violently towards the
family.
“It was especially towards his father and
brother. I was the only one who could approach
him. It culminated one day when he attempted
to stab his father with a knife. We drove him to a
psychiatric hospital where I knew some doctors.
They discovered that our son had schizophrenia
and kept him in hospital for a month. He had
been aggressive ever since he was a small child,
but we didn’t know why. We just thought he was
a bit different,” Yolanda says.
PHOTO: Joachim ladefoged