Surfacing People Coping with Depression and Mental Illness

An average of 1400 people call the South African Depression and Anxiety Suicide Helpline every day. And those are just the people who know it exists and are able to reach out for help, either for themselves or for a loved one. Journalist Marion Scher has spent years speaking to people suffering from depression or some other form of mental illness and felt compelled to share some of these stories in Surfacing. Each chapter tells a different and very personal story, from a Springbok rugby player faced overnight with mental illness to a successful businessman who attempted suicide three times in one day. A new mother whose horrific real experiences didn’t match the Instagram photos of blissful motherhood she had expected, and a mother’s heartbreaking story of surviving the loss of her teenage daughter to suicide. The common thread that runs through the stories is how each person learnt to deal with their illness, conquer their personal mountains, and go on to lead healthy, fulfilled lives— more than they’d ever hoped for.

Marion Scher, award winning South African journalist, author, and media consultant, has written much about mental health over the last 26 years. But it was after receiving a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship from the Carter Center in Atlanta in 2005 that the idea of a meaningful book on the topic formed in her mind. As media consultant to SADAG she is honoured to have been part of the movement to reach out through the South African media to enhance Rosalynn Carter’s dream of helping to break the stigma of mental health.