Product Description

This is one of the most startling and uplifting book about depression ever written – the ‘essence of hope’.

Griffin and Tyrrell are the foremost teachers of effective psychotherapy for depression in Europe. Without ‘psychobabble’, false sentiment or jargon, they make it easy to understand the causes of depression and why so many of us are so vulnerable to it. More importantly, they describe how to overcome it. Thousands throughout the UK and Ireland have already benefited from their approach. Now you can too.

'How to lift depression [...fast]' shatters many myths. It provides clear guidelines, with case histories, for helping people get out of depression, even those at high risk of committing suicide. Just reading it can raise your mood and put joy, pleasure and meaning back into life, even in the bleakest of circumstances.

ANSWERS VITAL QUESTIONS – MANY NOT TACKLED BEFORE:

– How to get out of depression quickly
– Why depressed people wake up so exhausted
– How worrying and dreaming are linked to depression
– How to make your life meaningful
– What harm antidepressant drugs can do to the brain
– Why postnatal depression can also be lifted quickly
– Why some common forms of counselling and psychotherapy often make depression worse
– How to ‘inoculate’ yourself against depression.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26544 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

BBC Radio 4, 'All in the Mind'
"Absolutely the right way forward"

Ruth Morozzo, 'Footnotes' Magazine, 2005
"An empowering book ... immediately useful ... Read, use, enjoy and reap the benefits for yourself and others."

Ruth Morozzo, 'Footnotes' Magazine, 2005
"An empowering book ... immediately useful ... Read, use, enjoy and reap the benefits for yourself and others."

Customer Reviews

Mmmm not sure.....
When I began reading this book I was really positive about it - the sleep stuff was new and interesting to me. Soon though, the ideas about retraining your thought processes and patterns of behaviour became like exhausting demands. When I'm really deep down in depression I already feel inadequate and extremely guilty and not being able to do the stuff the book suggests only served to reinforce that.
It's like I KNOW I SHOULD be trying to get out more, do more exercise, change thought patterns etc but if I can barely lift my head off the sofa I'm not sure how to do those things!!! And now I'm beating myself up even more for failing at that too.
I've found it vital to surviving depression to let go, listen to your body, be gentle with yourself and trust that the storm will pass. If you're absolutely at rock bottom I'd recommend Gwyneth Lewis' 'Sunbathing in the Rain'.
I'm going to re-read this book when I'm through this storm as I think the ideas are valid - just inappropriate at this time as I think a certain amount of strength, emotional and physical,is needed, which is not always a resource I have in my darkest times.
I would say, however, that different things work for different people. If solution based stuff helps you through depression then go for it. But if you're someone who's brain won't quieten, who needs to simply to begin to validate feelings that you've either not allowed yourself to have or have spent years undermining then there are better books than this for you.

Not too convinced by this book
At first glance this book seemed very interesting to me. However, I am really quite disappointed by its content. A lot of what the authors present as new approaches to lift depression fast is common sense - get out more, engage in social life, find meaningful activities to get your life back... I know that I should do all these things, but I really cannot motivate myself to do any of that when I am in my black hole. It might be a different story to actually work with one of the human givens therapists. On a different matter, I think they are too evangelical about their dislike of antidepressants and of other approaches to therapy. Not too motivating to be doing a therapy which you thought was moving on well and then be told by the authors that it is all rubbish!
The stuff about sleep patterns and depression was very interesting, and, wanting to learn some more about that, I tried to find published research by Joe Griffin about this (because the authors say that the dream/sleep stuff is built on his research) but could find nothing. That was very disappointing! So, all in all, I was not too happy about this book.

Good but a little one sided
I work with depressed people on a day to day basis and, on the whole I found this book extremely good. It is full of useful strategies and a down to earth approach. A lot of it is common sense

However, I feel the authors are a little narrow minded in their, almost evangelical opposition to the medical treatment of depression. SSRI anidepressants have helped, and continue to help many thousands of people to live 'normal' lives when they were previously in the grip of despair. Yes, they treat the symptoms, rather than the cause of depression but this book seems to suggest to people that they should be shunned at all costs, in favour of therapy. A dangerous and narrow minded view in my opinion.