PUBLISHERS' QUEST
The audience she reached included publishers, searching through the Sunday supplements for ideas to feed the appetite for first-person accounts.
"By sharing their own painful memories of mental illness, these writers, who are aiming to remove some of the stigma surrounding their condition, will be hoping ... they can encourage others to recognise the symptoms of depression and seek medical help if they suspect they need it," said Clare Hulton, Vermilion's publishing director.
Two other depression memoirs already published in Britain this year are "Shoot the Damn Dog" by Sally Brompton and "Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" by Lorna Martin.
It is no coincidence that all three writers are women as research has shown they are around twice as likely as men to suffer from depression.
The reasons are in part hormonal. Merritt's illness was particularly acute when she suffered post-natal depression, but its roots went back to her teens.
Merritt's alternative solution to taking prescription drugs is to use the natural product 5-Hydroxytryptophan, or 5-HTP, an amino acid from which the brain makes serotonin, a neurotransmitter.
Writing is also to a degree therapeutic, but not a cure. Merritt said she had to have recovered from her darkest moods in order to be able to write about them.
Now she has, she plans to return to fiction and is working on a historical novel.
"I'm tired of writing about the inside of my head," she said.
