Product Description

Based on the authors' more than 20 years of research and practice, this unique, seven-step program challenges the conventional wisdom that healing occurs from the inside out

It shows that real change comes from building healthier relationships with other people, our own bodies, nature, and spirituality.

The program can be used either without medications or in conjunction with them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #328193 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
"A ground-breaking book that shatters the myths about depression and anxiety, clearing the way for real healing." Divorce Magazine."

From the Back Cover

A proven, 7-step approach to beating depression and anxiety

Research has indicated that human beings’ natural inclination is toward optimism. So why are so many of us so unhappy? In this powerful self-healing guide, psychologist Bob Murray and therapist Alicia Fortinberry draw upon the latest findings in neurobiology, psychiatry, and evolutionary biology to reveal how the psychological and physical stresses of modern life overwhelm our natural healing mechanisms and foster depression and anxiety by separating us from what truly makes us human.

More important, in Creating Optimism, you’ll discover a revolutionary seven-step program for overcoming depression and anxiety that has proven far more effective than more traditional methods. Based on their more than two decades of research and practice, Murray and Fortinberry challenge the conventional wisdom that all psychological healing occurs from the inside-out, and explain how, by building healthier relationships with others, your body, nature, and spirituality, you can restructure neural pathways in your brain and promote new, healthier ways of thinking and behaving.

Armed with powerful charts, exercises, self-tests and action plans, you’ll:

• Identify your dysfunctional thinking and behaviors
• Use mind-body healing exercises techniques to restructure neural pathways in your brain and remove obstacles to your happiness
• Build and maintain healthy relationships
• Bind families, friends, and coworkers together in a healthy interconnectedness
• See past the false values engendered by modern society and find lasting fulfillment in what really matters
• Feel better about yourself and achieve more in your personal and professional life
• Beat depression and anxiety--permanently

About the Author

Bob Murray, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, and Alicia Fortinberry, M.S., a psychotherapist and movement educator, have been helping people overcome depression and build strong, healing relationships for more than 20 years. The husband-and-wife team developed the Uplift Program, which is taught at the University of South Florida and the California Institute of Integral Studies. They also consult for multinational corporations.

Customer Reviews

You can overcome depression too
As well as being, “A Proven, 7-Step Program for Overcoming Depression” there is a lot of good advice and sound thinking for everyone to make use of, even those who have never suffered depression, but simply feel there must be a better way to live.

There is some looking at things that happen to young people that are likely to lead to problems later on. This may sound like going over a lot of old ground that is not so fashionable these days, but I like their approach a lot.

Early on in the book the authors often look from the point of view that our ancestors had a lot less mental health problems. (Based largely on studying “modern” tribes of hunter-gatherers to see how those people interact with each other). Using this view point it can be shown that so many mental health problems stem from how society these days is formed of tiny family units (sometimes only 1 family member?) living almost in isolation from the rest of the “tribe”. For me this idea is put across in a very convincing way. They go on to suggest that most of us would benefit from relating to a wider group of people and effectively forming our own larger “tribe” around us. In doing so we would regain the confidence and support our ancestors would have had from the other tribe members.

The book is surprisingly (for a 7 step plan) split into 3 sections. The first section contains the introductory part and steps 1 and 2. The third section contains steps 4, 5, 6 and 7. Whilst the middle section is taken up entirely by step 3. This seems an odd lay out until you realize that perhaps everything hinges on step 3.

Step 1: Identify and Defeat the Inner Saboteur
The idea that part of me wanted me to keep on failing was an idea that until recently I could not accept. This section explains how it comes to be true for just about everyone. Because our minds are largely “programmed” by events as we grow up and much of what happens can be along the lines of not succeeding, we all are likely to have part of us that actually encourages us to fail. Recognizing this does not come naturally and this is where this section of the book helps a lot.

Step 2: Reconnect to Your Body
“Depression is an illness of the body as well as the mind…”. This section talks about how you feel mentally depending on everything to do with your whole body. That could be getting a little exercise to correcting posture. It is not by chance that very depressed people have a particular posture. Walking and moving like someone who is not depressed is a step towards lifting depression.

Step 3: CREATE HEALING RELATIONSHIPS:
This is the biggest section by far and reflects the authors’ belief that healing comes from the outside. They say that depressed people do not suddenly pull themselves together and snap out of it. They confirm that we overcome depression by interacting in a positive way with others. In this whole section, two things really stuck in my mind. Firstly the idea that we generally do not tell people around us what we need, but when we do start doing this and saying “I need…” then things really start to change. I have tried this technique and I found it scary at first because normally I would say, “I would like…” even when it was something that I desperately needed the other person to do. The technique works, but go carefully with it!
The other thing that stuck in my mind was to do with how many friends/contacts do people typically need. Of course this will vary a lot from person to person and how you classify who is a friend/contact or just someone you nod to in the street.

Step 4: Elevate Your Self-Esteem
They say they have never met anyone with depression who has not had low self-esteem, nor anyone with high self-esteem with depression. They go on to point out that contrary to much current opinion self-esteem cannot be built in isolation and you need a supportive network to help you with this task.

Step 5: Uncover Your Competence
We are all good at something. Working out what that is and doing it is part of the healing process described in this chapter.

Step 6: Access the Power of Shared Purpose
When people lived in tribes the common purpose was obvious. These days we can find ourselves living alongside people whom we do not share common purposes. Being able to share a purpose and work alongside someone to achieve that is extremely uplifting.

Step 7: Deepen Your Relationship to the Divine
This last step worried me, because I thought it was going to get very American and religious. In fact it does neither. They talk about the subject of spirituality in a way that I think almost everyone would find acceptable.

Overall I like this book a lot. It has great potential for alleviating depression and even helping many people to make complete recoveries. I do not think my review fully does it justice as there is so much in its 200+ pages that it has to be read to get the full meaning of each of the ideas.

interesting but not life-changing
I bought this book because it appeared to be the first really explanatory, detailed and comprehensive book completely dedicated to the subject of depression. When you're in a depression, a solution proposed in a step-by-step program is very attractive. No other self-help book or popular media seems to have been able to do this. So I bought it. It presented various interesting psychological, biological and evolutionary theories about why we might be depressed. But the idea of a 7-step program for depression I found was unrealistic. I read the book and put it down and haven't acted on it since.

Some of the concepts presented such as identifying the sources of negative thinking, having an overall purpose and meditation are very general ideas that I had already began to ponder.Depression is so complex and varies from person to person that it's really up to the person overcoming the depression to decide where to place the emphasis in their recovery, at what pace to go and in what sequence. Some people for example might discover excercise and meditation before they go on to tackle negative thinking and issues in the family.

Since reading this book a few months ago, I've discovered a more useful concept which has helped me begin to tackle my depression and that is Bowen's theory of family systems. It's similar to the theory presented in Creating Optimism in that it addresses the issue of your overall role in your immediate and extended family. However, it does so in the present and "now" without going back to dated and complex concepts such as hunter/gatherer tribal roles.

I've found books such as The Dance of Intimacy/The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner and Why you Can't Get on with Your Mother by Victoria Secunda, which both allude to the family systems model more useful in helping me identify patterns of negative thinking and changing them. Ultimately, no one book can tackle depression. It's up to the person to 'piece together' the sources of their problems. Tackling depression in practice is a real trial and error experience. That's why it's so hard because sometimes it feels like you're striking out in the dark. And a book like this might make you feel like depression is a conclusive, concrete thing that you can begin to tackle. However, since reading this and other books I've recently made the discovery that while depression feels like it's the be-all, end-all of your problems- it really is only a symptom of deeper patterns beyond inheriting negative thinking from a close member of the family. It's a combination of myriad factors, including one's sensitivity and propensity to internalize anxiety. Once you begin to understand the various and multifarious issues which are SPECIFIC TO YOU AND YOUR LIFESTYLE, the depression 'disperses' only to come again occassionally when you experience a lack of hope. The danger of the authors asserting a "Proven" approach to tackling depression is that it makes you feel like you have no options but to follow the step-by-step program or else you will be doomed to the feeling of being depressed forever. I had that uncomfortable, unsettled feeling after reading it. Which is what made me give it two stars instead of three.

An important aspect of depression this book also neglects to mention is the increasing studies being done on the role of mineral deficiency in causing depression and suicidal thoughts. It alludes to anti-depressants in one part. I don't think it takes a strong enough stance on the detrimental affects of anti-depressants. Many people over the years have suffered immensely from taking them, including myself. My experience has been that taking the mineral magnesium did for me overnight what years of anti-depressants failed to do for years. Mineral deficiency, nutrition and physiological health I think are grossly under-played in this book. For example, hyper-thyroidism and harmone imbalance are conditions which can 'mimic' depression. The book is correct in saying that certain conditions are often symptomatic of depression. But the same can be said vice versa.

It works!
I bought this book for my husband who has battled with bouts of serious depression for many years. He's very sceptical of this sort of thing having tried numerous other self-help books, but once he'd started to read it and to follow the excercises he quickly became very entheusiastic about it. I noticed a difference in his mood, self-esteem and behaviour before he'd even finished it, and so far he's continuing to improve. He's much happier, more grounded and more self confident, and from my point of view much easier to live with!
I'm half way through reading it myself and find it clearly and well written, sympathetic, non-patronising and not like the usual yucky American self-help books. The excercises are clearly set out and easy to follow. Give it a go, it might just change things for you and save you some hefty therapy bills!