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Understanding and Overcoming Depression
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Understanding and Overcoming Depression

A Common Sense Approach

Tony Bates
Crossing Press, 2001
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Recommendation

Depression is not about feeling bad. After all, everyone feels bad from time to time. True clinical depression happens when you feel bad all the time for a long time. This level of depression colors the way you think and feel about yourself and everything else in your life. And, one of the most devastating symptoms of depression is that you believe you will never get better. This short, easy-to-absorb book by Dr. Tony Bates gives an overview of depression, its causes and cures. He recommends a holistic approach to recovery through the use of medication and psychotherapy. Bates also outlines a simple plan including recognizing and challenging your negative thought patterns, reducing stress, keeping a journal and tackling small achievable tasks. Other books cover different aspects of this illness in much more depth, but even so, getAbstract recommends Bates’s guide as a useful introduction to the subject.

Summary

What Is Depression?

People often say that they are depressed. Everyone feels down now and then, especially after suffering a stressful experience, such as the loss of a job or the death of a favorite pet. People usually go through a period of mourning, and then recover with the support of family and friends. Grieving over the loss of a loved one, although heartbreaking, is different from clinical depression. The following traits characterize clinical depression:

  • An unrelenting sad mood.
  • An absence of energy and vitality.
  • Problems concentrating or remembering things.
  • Loss of interest in activities that you once embraced and enjoyed.
  • Difficulty sleeping and changes in appetite.

Depression is more than just a low mood that taking part in a pleasant activity or receiving nurturing from others can lift. People suffering from depression feel isolated and often withdraw from friends and family. They also feel terrible about themselves and believe that life will never be good again.

Depression’s Common Signs

“Depression is a state of profound psychological suffering that reduces a person’s sense of physical well...

About the Author

Dr. Tony Bates treats people with depression in his role as senior clinical psychologist at St. James’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland.

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