  family_profile_maryngary In 1994 Mary Margaret was working
long hours for an international consulting firm. She also bought
a house that year, and her father, who had been fighting cancer,
passed away. "By April 1995," she says, "I could no longer get
out of bed or stop crying."  Mary was "completely exhausted,"
and her decision-making suffered. "Something as simple as
figuring out what to eat was overwhelming." She had trouble
concentrating and with comprehension. "I could read a sentence
five times, and it would still make no sense to me." "Throughout
it all, there was this overwhelming sense of despair," she says.
"If I wasn't sleeping, I was crying." She missed work and
ultimately was asked to resign.  Mary's psychiatrist prescribed
antidepressant medications. At first Mary refused to take them.
"I've always been a 'say no to drugs' kind of person. Then, my
psychiatrist explained the difference between therapeutic and
recreational drugs. I finally realized my symptoms were
medically based. I thought it