Recommended Books on Depression
I’ve been using this book in therapy with my clients for years with good results. Warning: You can’t just sit back and read this book passively. You absolutely have to do the exercises to benefit from reading this book. And it is best to have the one-on-one guidance of a licensed professional therapist on how to best use this book in your unique set of circumstances. Professional feedback really helps you acquire skill in monitoring and managing your moods.
Another warning: This is not bedtime reading material. I remember one of my clients had terrible insomnia. I asked him about his nightly routine before going to sleep. He told me he had a stack of self-help books on his bed stand and randomly picked one up to read before going to sleep. By doing this every night, he was seeing how many problems he had and what he could and should do to fix these problems. He didn’t know where to start. He felt overwhelmed by all the things he should do and how little he was really doing. He was unwittingly inducing anxiety, guilt, and demoralization on a nightly basis. No wonder he couldn’t get to sleep! I advised him to put his self-help books in a closet and work with me on mastering one skill at a time. His insomnia soon lifted and he recovered from his depression. There is lesson to be learned here for anyone into these “self-hell” books.