It’s strange that a man born on Labor Day has had to work so hard to succeed in life. Jacob seems like a normal person. He likes music, art and photography. His parents both got college degrees. He used to go to a beach house in Portland every summer. He is a big fan of Mexican food. Reading these facts about him may lead to the opinion that he had a great childhood. However, behind all of these is a past that would be terrible for many kids growing up.
It started when he was only two years old. His parents divorced and then remarried. Going through elementary school and middle school, he was frightened a lot. This may have led to the worst thing that could have happened to a young man.
He developed deep depression. Doing the smart thing, he talked to his parents about his problem. His parents decided that this issue was very serious and Jacob was admitted to West Hills Hospital. He stayed there for two weeks and had his depression diagnosed. Serious insomnia caused the problem.
The solution was daily medication. The medication took care of Jacob’s depression problem. However, it contained a substance with lithium(锂). The side effect he suffered from lithium was that he got spoonfuls of sugar and ate it with anything else that was on his plate. This led to a weight gain of 25 pounds while he was on medication. So he decided he had to lose some weight and stop the medication.
Now he has lost a big part of the weight and he has managed to solve his problem he had in high school. Now he is a happy human being.
Many people would have had a very hard time coming back from depression. Many people probably would have given up their dreams. But Jacob is not like this. He took what was a mess of his life and turned it around to become a great man and a person with a very bright future.
When was Jacob possibly born according to the passage? (no more than 3 words)   (2 marks)
Why did Jacob suffer from deep depression? (no more than 4 words)   (2 marks)
How did Jacob gain the weight of 25 pounds while on medication? ( no more than 5 words) (3 marks)
What can we know from Jacob’s story? (no more than 10 words)   (3 marks)