Orlando Da Silva was, by every external measure, a success story: trial lawyer, Senior Crown Counsel, future President of the Ontario Bar Association. But behind the polished résumé, he had silently been fighting depression since childhood. In 2008, that silence nearly killed him. "e;Thank God I Failed"e; traces the arc of a life shaped by depression's persistent lies, and the people, moments, and stubborn acts of defiance that exposed them. Along the way, Da Silva confronts Canada's debate over medical assistance in dying for mental illness, arguing from hard-won experience that what saved his life was not the right to die, but the refusal of others to let his worst moments define his future. This is a field manual for staying alive, by revealing our minds to be unreliable narrators of our own worth.

Orlando Da Silva was, by every external measure, a success story: trial lawyer, Senior Crown Counsel, future President of the Ontario Bar Association. But behind the polished résumé, he had silently been fighting depression since childhood. In 2008, that silence nearly killed him. "e;Thank God I Failed"e; traces the arc of a life shaped by depression's persistent lies, and the people, moments, and stubborn acts of defiance that exposed them. Along the way, Da Silva confronts Canada's debate over medical assistance in dying for mental illness, arguing from hard-won experience that what saved his life was not the right to die, but the refusal of others to let his worst moments define his future. This is a field manual for staying alive, by revealing our minds to be unreliable narrators of our own worth.

Orlando Da Silva was, by every external measure, a success story: trial lawyer, Senior Crown Counsel, future President of the Ontario Bar Association. But behind the polished résumé, he had silently been fighting depression since childhood. In 2008, that silence nearly killed him. "e;Thank God I Failed"e; traces the arc of a life shaped by depression's persistent lies, and the people, moments, and stubborn acts of defiance that exposed them. Along the way, Da Silva confronts Canada's debate over medical assistance in dying for mental illness, arguing from hard-won experience that what saved his life was not the right to die, but the refusal of others to let his worst moments define his future. This is a field manual for staying alive, by revealing our minds to be unreliable narrators of our own worth.