An inspirational book by Eric Hipple, former Quarterback for the Detroit Lions, with Drs. Gloria and Heidi Horsley
$12.95 • Paperback • 132 pages • ISBN: 9780981621920
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For bulk-rate discounts or to bring Eric to your organization as a guest speaker, call 1-877-513-0099 or email Books@QoLpublishing.com
Eric Hipple bares his soul in this incredible story of hope and triumph. After his 15-year-old son’s suicide, Eric fell into a debilitating downward spiral. This page turner chronicles Eric’s transformation as he seeks treatment for his own depression and learns to overcome the guilt of missing the warning signs of suicide. Real Men Do Cry includes practical checklists and resources for families living with depression and is a must-have resource for mental health counselors nationwide.
What the Experts Say:
In the Foreword to REAL MEN DO CRY, Dr. John F. Greden, Executive Director of the University of Michigan Depression Center, writes that once Eric sought treatment for his own depression, “he was able to help thousands of others take steps to overcome the still-prevailing stigma and fight back.”
“Part of Eric’s story is that clinical depression and bipolar disorder are brain disorders that affect one in five individuals in the world…They commonly start early in life, with symptoms usually beginning during the ages of 15 – 24, and are made worse by the routine stresses that each of us faces. The clinical symptoms and sign described in this book tend to come in ‘episodes’ over our lifetime, and unless treated, each episode tends to get a bit worse and a bit more difficult to treat. The World Health Organization has determined that clinical depression and bipolar disorder are producing more burden and disability than virtually all other medical diseases that are known.”
“Eric shares my viewpoint that to educate and fight stigma, we need more voices, many more voices. That is why this book emerged. As a good quarterback, Eric decided to share his knowledge and passion in the belief that he could help explain the game plan to win this struggle and defeat clinical depression and bipolar disorders. Eric knows that with a true team effort, we can—and will—finally conquer them.”
Chapter Outline:
Chapter 1: From Monday Night football to Monday Night in Jail
Chapter 2: Beginnings of a Dream
Chapter 3: College Glory Days
Chapter 4: Winning Seasons with the Detroit Lions
Chapter 5: Tackled by Life
Chapter 6: Numbing the Pain, Then Crashing, Then Burning
Chapter 7: Calling New Plays
Excerpts:
“Looking back, I now realize that I displayed all the classic symptoms of depression. Here was this big, rugged former NFL quarterback sobbing like a baby. Or, at times just blubbering uncontrollably.”
“The grief came in unexpected waves and pounded me like a fierce ocean storm. I felt guilty. I felt fear. I felt anger. I felt numb. I felt stressed. And I felt lonely.”
“Jeff’s suicide was something that I would have to live with for the rest of my life; this realization ate me up inside and slowly eroded away at me.”
“How could he have been in so much pain, yet I couldn’t see it?”
“I now know that beyond the external pressures causing Jeff’s changes, he was desperately trying to cope, as I had, with undiagnosed depression.”
“I learned early on that it was not okay for boys to cry, or to show any form of weakness.”
“As you will remember, I was told early on the ‘act like a man.’ This carried over to my undiagnosed depression after my forced retirement from the Lions. What I’m talking about are symptoms like Jeff’s: longer periods of feeling under a very dark cloud, of feeling hopeless and worthless, like the light at the end of the tunnel is a train coming toward you.”
“I was a prisoner in my own mind. I still wore a uniform, but I traded my Lions’ team uniform for a green prison-issued jumpsuit.”
“I did not realize it at the time, but undiagnosed depression and grief were my constant companions.”
“Just like on the playing field, in front of the judge, I really believed I was still calling the plays, and with the right offense that I could beat the system.”
“I had been through so much heartache that I was allowed to slip up once, or twice, that is, until those same patterns of self-destructive behavior became habits that held me down, destroyed my life, and kept me from healing and recovering.”
“For so long I had been subconsciously creating problems, major and minor, to distract me from the central fact that my 15-year-old son, Jeff, was dead.”
“Because I was a quarterback, people saw me as an extrovert; however, the real me was shy and didn’t know what to say.”
“Little did I know that this would be the last time I’d see my beautiful boy alive.”
“The important thing to know — and in hindsight, what I wish I’d known then — is that depression is treatable.”
“Keep in mind that not everyone with depression will attempt suicide, but if the signs seem familiar it is always better to err on the side of caution and get help. Bottom line: Get help immediately.”
“Our siblings are the ones who take our life’s journey with us; they know things about us that nobody else knows. So in a sense when we lose a sibling, we lose part of our history.”
“One of the most important things I’ve learned from Jeff’s death is that to help children deal with suicide, you have to be honest about what happened.”
“Typically with depression there is a sense that all light and hope has been extinguished and that there is no purpose in struggling against all odds any longer.”
“I was in a deep, dark funk, and the only way I could function was to basically drink all day long.”
“I was just oblivious and knew that I couldn’t get through the long days and sleepless nights without some help.”
“After a couple of weeks in lockup, I experienced a big turnaround moment where I realized that I needed to really examine my life and actions, and take responsibility.”
“Exercise is another means to deal with depression. Another physical means to deal with depression is to shed some tears. Yes, I am talking about men crying.”
“The more I learned about my own illness, the more I realized that Jeff had been suffering in much the same way I had at his age.”
“I somehow feel that if I can save just one life, then Jeff’s death was not in vain.”
“‘Forgiveness is like setting a prisoner free and then finding out that prisoner is you.’”
“I never want to see anyone have to go through the pain my son went through or the aftermath that our family had to endure.”
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