Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar is a masterpiece — and one of my favorite books. The novel, loosely based on Plath's own life, is about Esther Greenwood, whose descent into mental illness eerily reflects that of the author.

In early 2017, production will start on a film adaptation of the novel. Kirsten Dunst, who co-wrote the film with Nellie Kim, will make her debut as a feature film director with the adaptation. Dakota Fanning will play the protagonist, a young woman in the 1950s who is bursting with ambitions until she falls into a suicidal depression.

It's hard for any film to match the quality of a classic novel. But regardless of how the film turns out, I welcome the news because it will almost certainly bring more readers to the book.

Given the stigma and misconceptions that surround mental illness, it's as important as ever for people to read The Bell Jar. It could allow more people to understand what mental illness is like. And more understanding will almost certainly lead to positive outcomes.

As someone diagnosed with major depressive disorder, I know firsthand how difficult it is to illustrate a pain that doesn't visibly manifest. It's one thing to list the facts about depression. It's another thing to elegantly describe the seemingly indescribable anguish of depression, as Plath does so effectively in The Bell Jar.

In the novel, college student Esther Greenwood lands an internship in New York. She has scholarships and prizes and friends and parties and attention. "Everybody would think I must be having a real whirl," she explains. However, with all the excitement around her, she "felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo."

Describing the overwhelming sense of doubt that too often comes with depression, Greenwood laments:

"I felt dreadfully inadequate. The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn't thought about it."

She felt like a fraud. She had a long history of accomplishments, but now she felt like she was a fraud then too — she simply hadn't thought about it.

She explains how depression can cloud one's mind in all areas of life. Nothing, nothing at all, feels worth doing:

"It seemed silly to wash one day when I would only have to wash again the next. It made me tired just to think of it. I wanted to do everything once and for all and be through with it."

One scene that I can especially relate to is in Chapter 11. Greenwood meets with a doctor and hopes that he can easily offer a solution. She wanted to "find words to tell him how I was so scared, as if I were being stuffed farther and farther into a black, airless sack with no way out." Then, she had hoped, the doctor would be able to “tell me why I couldn’t sleep and why I couldn’t read and why I couldn’t eat and why everything people did seemed so silly, because they only died in the end. And then, I thought, he would help me, step by step, to be myself again.”

Unfortunately, however, it's not that easy. Back then, and even still today, the medical community didn't offer any concrete cures; there are no easy fixes. And that's part of what's so scary about depression. "If only something were wrong with my body it would be fine," Greenwood says. "I would rather have anything wrong with my body than something wrong with my head."

That helplessness makes it hard to remain hopeful. Greenwood felt that, no matter where she went, "I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air." And, sadly, that's too often how depression feels. Like there's no escape from it. Like it defines who you are. Like you're stuck, trapped inside of it.

Tragically, Plath took her life shortly after finishing the novel.

But that's not how it needs to end, especially today with our vast improvements in mental health care.

Treatment is available. It isn't flawless, I'll admit. Psychotherapy and medication can be expensive and take weeks before any significant improvement. It's not perfect, but it can literally save lives — including my own.

A few years ago, I suffered a major depressive episode, which caused significant problems in all aspects of life. Depression can be overwhelming. In addition to months of psychotherapy, I began taking a combination of antidepressants. The pills did not make me happy all the time, nor did they change my personality or anything like that. They did, however, save my life by keeping me from falling down into the very depths of depression.

Recently, with the help of my psychiatrist, I got off of my antidepressant medications, largely because I disliked some of the drugs' side effects.

I've been doing well so far, but that doesn't mean it's not scary. To quote Greenwood again, "How did I know that someday — at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere — the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn’t descend again?" Sadly, you can't really know.

Hopefully, we can soon find a more permanent and reliable form of treatment for depression. But don't let the lack of easy options keep you from pursuing what is available.

Without understanding what the world looks like through the bell jar of depression, we can't adequately address the problems of depression. I encourage anyone and everyone to read The Bell Jar for that very reason.

We can only imagine how different Plath's fate might have been if she had access to the options we have today. But none of those options will make a difference if we don't take advantage of them.

Where to turn

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255. Confidential online chat is also available at suicide preventionlifeline.org

NorthStar/North Texas Behavioral Health Authority: 1201 Richardson Drive, Suite 270, Richardson, Texas 75080. The 24-hour crisis hotline is at 1-866-260-8000 or go to ntbha.org

The Suicide and Crisis Center of North Texas: Call the 24-hour hotline at 214-828-1000 to speak to a trained counselor or go to sccenter.org