River of Time ─ My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged With Hope

Naomi Judd's life as a country music superstar has been nonstop success. But offstage, she has battled incredible adversity. Struggling through a childhood of harsh family secrets, the death of a young sibling, and absent emotional support, Naomi found herself reluctantly married and an expectant mother at age seventeen. Four years later, she was a single mom of two, who survived being beaten and raped, and was abandoned without any financial support and nowhere to turn in Hollywood, CA.

Naomi has always been a survivor: She put herself through nursing school to support her young daughters, then took a courageous chance by moving to Nashville to pursue their fantastic dream of careers in country music. Her leap of faith paid off, and Naomi and her daughter Wynonna became The Judds, soon ranking with country music's biggest stars, selling more than 20 million records and winning six Grammys.

At the height of the singing duo's popularity, Naomi was given three years to live after being diagnosed with the previously incurable Hepatitis C. Miraculously, she overcame that too and was pronounced completely cured five years later.

But Naomi was still to face her most desperate fight yet. After finishing a tour with Wynonna in 2011, she began a three-year battle with Severe Treatment Resistant Depression and anxiety. She suffered through frustrating and dangerous roller-coaster effects with antidepressants and other drugs, often terrifying therapies and, at her absolute lowest points, thoughts of suicide. But Naomi persevered once again. RIVER OF TIME is her poignant message of hope to anyone whose life has been scarred by trauma.

NAOMI JUDD is a country music superstar and Grammy Award winning songwriter, best known as half of The Judds singing duo with her daughter Wynonna. The Judds have scored fifteen #1 hits and received more than sixty industry awards, including six Grammy Awards and seven consecutive CMA Vocal Group of the Year trophies. She has written three best-selling books and is an in-demand keynote speaker on topics of health, humanitarian issues, and community activism. Naomi Judd is also the mother of actress and activist Ashley Judd. Naomi and her husband, singer Larry Strickland, reside in the Nashville area.

MARCIA WILKIE is a three-time New York Times bestselling co-author, and a versatile writer with credits in television, radio, advertising, print media, speech writing, and theater.