Author Uses Personal Experience to Write Book About Childhood Depression

Agoura Hills, CA, April 19, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Author Anne Tibbets knows a thing or two about depression. As a young girl Anne suffered through an undiagnosed bout with depression when her family experienced some painful times, which included unemployment, losing their home, and her teenaged sister’s unplanned pregnancy and subsequent marriage to a sexual predator.

“It wasn’t anybody’s fault nobody noticed. We were all suffering,” Anne says, who now boasts a healthy relationship with all members of her immediate family. “It’s very common for the children’s emotional needs to get lost in the shuffle.”

Using her personal experience, and a “good dose of fiction,” Anne Tibbets, a Smashwords.com Best Selling author of the Young Adult Fantasy The Beast Call and co-author of Middle Grade adventure The Amulet Chronicles, Book One: The Journey Home, departs from her customary comfort zone of sword fights and time travel to delve into a deeper issue, so close to her heart.

“It took three years to write. I’d work for a few weeks and find myself so depressed, I’d have to put it away for a month or two before I could stomach it again. It was rough, but was a story I had to tell. For myself, and all the other kids out there like Mary,” Anne says.

Shut Up follows twelve-year-old Mary, who suffers from depression while dealing with unwanted sexual advances from her soon-to-be brother-in-law, physical abuse from her overwrought mother, and emotional abuse from her pregnant teenage sister. Mary’s depression eventually leads to her running away from home and plans of suicide.

“It’s about finding your way through all the chaos around you, and being okay with who you are, despite what everybody else is telling you. Such an important thing to learn! I’ve gotten just as many positive responses from parents of teens as I have from the kids. It’s a book for everyone.”

Published by Premier Digital Publishing on April 15, 2012, Shut Up is available in paperback on Amazon.com, and as an e-book on all distribution sites.