Review Detail

The author of this book is a psychotherapist who runs a community health centre. Importantly, he has struggled with depression himself so has first-hand experience of what this crippling condition actually feels like to the patient. This, along with the experience the author has treating depressed patients in his clinic, means that he has a great deal of wisdom to offer.

Medication and therapy are often helpful to many patients either alone or in combination, but Richard O'Conner suggests they are not the whole solution. He offers a wealth of practical advice for the depressed patient themselves, as well as family and close friends, to follow to offer the individual the best chance of overcoming their affliction.

Amongst the highlights of this book for me were the section describing the many and varied reasons why people often fail in successfully overcoming their depression. It highlights the common patterns of thinking that depressed patients get stuck in which hinders their efforts to break free of their dark moods. When you are depressed it is very hard to see what is right in front of your eyes so having someone point out what you might be doing wrong is very beneficial indeed.

The many case studies that the author presents from his clinical experience with patients is also a helpful addition to the book.

This is a very refreshing book on depressive illness by an author with a lot of experience both personal and professional and I would highly recommend it to all. My only complaint is that the book is promoted as a "holistic" approach to depression but neglects to mention alternative/complementary therapies such as nutritional supplements, herbal remedies, acupuncture, and others that can be very helpful alone or in combination with more orthodox treatments. Ignoring this and taking the book for what it is, it will be of great help to many.