The Antidote: Happiness For People Who Cant Stand Positive Thinking By Oliver Burkeman
Oliver Burkeman turns depression on its head in The Antidote. This book is perfect for people who arent fans of traditional self-help books, explaining that there is an alternative path to happiness. Burkeman offers a counterintuitive approach to healing, inviting readers to embrace their fears, failures and negative emotions. The takeaway: stop striving for happiness. Let go of your attachment to it, surrender to the unknown and that is when you will discover what it means to be happy. Check out TThe Antidote here.
Kelly Brogan Md And Kristin Loberg
One in four women start their day with medication. According to authors Kelly Brogan, MD and Kristin Loberg, this dependence upon drugs has become the panacea for panic and grief, to depression and irritability, and everything in between. But Brogan and Loberg insist that the key to a womans happiness cannot be found in a drugstore. Rather, they recommend a more holistic approach based on years of experience working in a clinical practice and publishing her own medical findings. A Mind of Your Own lays out this unique approach in a step-by-step 30-day action plan.
This Close To Happy By Daphne Merkin
Its a question weve all asked ourselves at some point: whats the secret to happiness? And if youre struggling with depression, its a thought that becomes all consuming.
In this moving memoir, Merkin opens up about her struggles with depression, how it has affected her and those around her. She aims to shatter the stigma around mental illness, offering practical advice and valuable insights for anyone who is currently fighting the same battle. Check out This Close to Happy here.
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An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir Of Moods And Madness By Kay Redfield Jamison
Not only is Dr. Jamison an expert on bipolar disorder, she has also lived through it. She experienced the same highs and lows that affected her patients. Her mental illness took some surprising and scary turns, which she shares in An Unquiet Mind. Written from a dual perspective, this memoir is both insightful and empowering. Check out An Unquiet Mind here.
The Mindful Way Through Depression By Mark Williams John Teasdale Zindel Segal And Jon Kabat
Mindfulness is well-known for helping enhance your overall well-being and this is especially true for people with depression. Using expert-backed mindfulness techniques, you can rewire your negative thinking patterns. This book combines Eastern meditative traditions and cognitive therapy to help you improve your mental habits and find inner peace. Check out The Mindful Way Through Depression here.
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Change Your Brain Change Your Life
This book lays out the importance of the brain imaging study of individuals to know if their brains work right. It lays out how the brain works and how one can make it work better.
The author, Dr. Daniel Amen, a neuropsychiatrist, puts down the insights gained from the brain SPECT studies done on people. These studies reveal the blood flow and activity patterns that tell how the brain functions.
The doctor in his book reveals that it is important to study an individuals brain using brain imaging technology. This is because without studying the brain, it is difficult to say what the person is going through.
This book helps one to understand more about his brain and gives you ways in which you can improve your brain functioning. Such an understanding of the brain and getting ideas for improvement help on unbecoming more effective.
The aim of the author through this book is to help the reader to want a better brain. This is because living an enhanced life depends on having an improved brain. Further, the various concepts discussed in the book will help you to be more empathetic and change your perspective towards people who are struggling with mental illness.
The Unexpected Joy Of Being Sober
- Who its best for: anyone who is going through recovery or is ready to learn about the benefits of being sober
- Key message: When youre in recovery, you may often feel like youre missing out, but there are many joys to discover in sobriety.
Catherine Gray is a journalist who has personally dealt with alcohol addiction. Throughout Grays book, The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, she discusses her experience with addiction and recovery, shares scientific facts, and brings in expert insight that can be applied to all types of addiction.
She dives into the darker days of her life, then shines a light on her path to sobriety and all of the unexpected joys that came along with it. The overall goal is to relay the message that there are many benefits of being completely sober or even just cutting back on your alcohol consumption.
Gray isnt a mental health professional but her experience may help readers feel less alone in their struggles.
- Who its best for: women who have experienced any type of partner abuse
- Key message: Sometimes the road to recovery after trauma feels long, but there is a way to rebuild your self-esteem and heal.
Within the book, readers can take an assessment to understand if they are ready to undergo the exercises. The guide covers subjects like physical and emotional boundaries, self-soothing techniques, female sexuality, self-destructive behaviors, communication techniques, and acceptance.
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Reasons To Stay Alive By Matt Haig
Written from a candid and humorous perspective, Haig shares his experiences the hope of inspiring readers who are also going through depression. The main message is to focus on hope. There is always a silver lining, you just have to be in the present and believe that things will get better. Shifting to this mindset is the first step to healing. Check out Reasons to Stay Alive here.
Hope And Help For Your Nerves: End Anxiety Now
- Who its best for: those who deal with a lot of intrusive, repetitive thoughts that can trigger anxiety and panic
- Key message: Anxiety comes with many physical symptoms brought on by an overactive nervous system, but there are behavioral techniques you can use to calm yourself down.
Do you ever feel like a prisoner to your thoughts? If you cant seem to snuff out the flames of intrusive thoughts, theres a book for that. Intrusive thoughts can sometimes feel like a gnat you cant seem to keep away. At other times, they may feel like an avalanche that sends you into a panic.
In Hope and Help for Your Nerves, Dr. Claire Weekes provides step-by-step guidance on how to understand and mitigate your symptoms of anxiety. She uses her own experience and scenarios from pioneering work in psychiatry to provide a clear-cut path to help readers find their own power.
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Why Trust Verywell Mind
As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over 15 years of experience working with clients who struggle with mental health issues, understands the importance of finding quality resources and techniques that work for each person. Not everyone will have the same kind of healing journey, so having lots of options to choose from is vitally important to creating a lifestyle that combats depression symptoms.
% Happier By Dan Harris
After having a panic attack on national television, journalist Dan Harris realized it was time to self-reflect. To understand the source of his stress, he spoke with numerous self-help gurus, brain scientists and health experts. Harris discovered the problem was the voice in his head the nonstop mental chatter was the source of his stress.
During his wellness journey, he came across an effective tool to quiet his inner voice: meditation. Harris used meditation to rewire his brain and in this book, he shares the lessons hes learned and takeaway tips for readers to apply meditation in their own lives. Check out 10% Happier here.
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Spark: The Revolutionary New Science Of Exercise And The Brain By John J Ratey Md
The mind and body are closely linked, and John J. Ratey, M.D., explains how to utilize the mind-body connection to overcome depression, addiction, ADD and more. Spark contains many different case studies that examine how exercise affects the brain. The bottom line: get moving. Your mind will thank you. Check out Spark here.
What Is My Book About
Trying to manage the range of symptoms that depression throws at you is like navigating the dark ocean floor when you are without a torch and don’t know how to swim. How do you manage something that feels utterly unmanageable? How do you get through each day when depression is telling you you’re a worthless lump of camel spleen? What you need is a guide. A really good one. You need to know what works and what to do.This book gives you 40 ways to get to a better place with depression. They are born out of the author’s personal experience of clinical depression and his many years of working as a counsellor helping people with their mental health. James lives with depression and knows its lies, the traps it makes and how to dodge when it starts spitting bile in your face. Nice, eh?
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Getting To Good: A Guided Journal
Getting to Good: A Guided Journal by Elena Welsh, Ph.D. promises to bring happiness and positivity into your day, and is a great option for people who want to take an active role in their battle against depression but have grown tired of strict CBT workbooks. This option strikes a comfortable balance by encouraging the person journaling to gain some power and control over their symptoms by writing about their experiences and hopes for the future.
Journaling is a great way to explore symptoms and confront the feelings of depression, but sometimes people find the experience too daunting or monotonous.
To encourage movement towards feeling and functioning better, Welsh, a licensed clinical psychologist uses:
- Writing prompts, exercises, and reflections directed towards optimism and happiness
- Techniques and interventions derived from an eclectic mix of proven therapies like mindfulness, motivational interviewing, positive psychology, and CBT
- Strategies that promote thoughts and behaviors that focus on finding gratitude, finding the kindness and good in self and others, and appreciating the beauty in the world
Each page offers the reader something new, which helps deter boredom and journaling fatigue. Even people who have resisted journaling in the past could find something positive here.
I Thought It Was Just Me
Brene Brown is a social worker, researcher, best selling author, and star of one of the most viral TED talks of all time. What has earned her all of this notoriety? Her research on shame and vulnerability, two uncomfortable topics most people try to avoid. I Thought it Was Just Me is written for the imperfect versions of you that you are constantly editing, polishing and disguising because you are afraid of failure, rejection, and not being enough. Browns call to action is to abandon your inner PR rep and be your messy and imperfect self more often. She reminds you that trying to be perfect limits you, feeds your shame, and intimidates others, pushing them away. Dropping out of the perfect pageant also relieves a lot of pressure, stress, and anxiety.
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How People With Depression Benefit From Good Books For Depression
Its estimated that over 16 million people struggle with a major depressive disorder in the U.S. thats nearly seven percent of the population. Millions more struggle with:
- Persistent depressive disorder
- Seasonal depression
- Psychotic depression
The best books to read to help with depression will givereaders insight into their illness. Theyll find comfort knowing that theyarent alone in the struggle. And when they read the best books to get out ofdepression, they may be able to reduce some of their symptoms.
Goodbye Depression By Enrique Rojas
Dr. Enrique Rojas, professor of Psychiatry and director of the Spanish Institute of Psychiatric Research, has already published more than 15 books. His approach to depression is simple, valuable, and very profound.
With this book we can understand, for example, the history of depression. Misunderstood for a long time and misdiagnosed for even longer, Dr. Rojas invites us on a journey of psychological discernment which will give light to much of this darkness.
Through real clinical cases, we will discover the variety of symptoms depression has. We will also see the different strategies used to achieve healing. This is, without a doubt, one of the best books for overcoming depression.
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First We Make The Beast Beautiful By Sarah Wilson
Focuses on: AnxietyType: Feeling Less Alone and Greater Understanding/Research
I loved this book but I dont think everyone will. This is mostly due to Wilsons writing style and, I suppose, the way her brain works. Like a chronically anxious person, First, We Make the Beast Beautiful is frenetic and at times, overly-energetic, leaping from story to story, back ten years to ahead five years to childhood to imagined old age, from personal disaster to scientific research to that thing my meditation teacher told me that, by the way, totally didnt work, but hey, its funny now, looking back.
I enjoyed it because my brain sometimes operates in the same way. But Ive seen reviews online from anxious people who have commented that the book actually made them more anxious, just by reading it. Obviously, thats not the goal.
The Upward Spiral By Alex Korb Phd
This book dives into the neuroscience behind depression, looking at whats going on in our brains and how this mental illness affects our thoughts, feelings and behavior.
Author Alex Korb, PhD explains the steps you can take to change your brain chemistry such as muscle relaxation techniques, connecting to nature and more. Small shifts can make a major difference. Check out The Upward Spiral here.
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Reasons To Stay Alive
When fighting depression, it can feel impossible to turn our hearts to the light at the end of the tunnel. Yet, author Matt Haigs classic shines as a bright source of hope. Having gone through deep depression himself, he gives a truly moving autobiography filled with heartfelt self-help advice.
In addition, many readers have praised Reasons to Stay Alive for its empathetic tone. Matt uses many anecdotes and relatable metaphors to perfectly capture the essence of depression and anxiety. At the same time, by the books second half, he also celebrates many of the small victories, loving moments, and genuine hope that lifted him out of darkness.
Above all, I love how Reasons to Stay Alive doesnt sidestep depressions messiness. Instead, it talks about the mental condition for what it is while still warmly inspiring us to overcome. In short, the book, while light on pragmatic help, feels like a much-needed friend who fills our hearts with good reasons to fight on.
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Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment For Depression And Anxiety
David D. Burns updates his famous book Feeling Good with new treatment and plans for depression and anxiety based on 40 years of research.
In this latest rendition, Burns argues that negative thoughts arent just something to be ignored: They often tell us exactly what we need to know about our current state and illustrate whats making us unhappy. Recognizing that connection, Burns says, allows us to better understand ourselves and find recovery.
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The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience To Reverse The Course Of Depression One Step At A Time
Depression is described as a downward spiral. Depression is a slump. It is difficult to claw out of it. But it doesnt have to be. The Upward Spiral: Use Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Step at a Time by Alex Korb gives readers advice on pulling themselves out of that vortex of negative emotions. This book is all about the small changes that help reduce stressful thoughts. There is no large, straight-forward solution to curing depression and increasing positivity.
This book is practical. It helps relax muscles. It has advice for getting better on the individuals terms. This book reshapes the brain. This book is based on scientific research on neuroscience, so it is based on facts. It is easy to read, and it is comprehensive. It reads well, and has plenty of steps for turning a downward spiral into an upward spiral.
- : Alex Korb PhD
Cognitive Behavior Therapy Made Simple by Seth G. Gillihan is a guide that helps with anxiety, depression, and other illnesses. The book focuses on 10 steps that manage the side effects of mental illnesses like panic, anger, and worry. This book has a simple approach to understanding cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy seems complicated, but its actually fairly simple. This book makes it even simpler.
- : Seth J. Gillihan Ph.D
- Publisher: Althea Press
- Pages: 234 pages
- : Richard OConnor PhD
- Publisher: Little, Brown Spark 2nd Revised edition
- Pages: 384 pages
- : David Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Its Not Always Depression
Believe it or not, there is a difference between being sad and being depressed. Its Not Always Depression by Hillary Jacobs Hendel has many stories of people who have suffered from anxiety and depression, and how they treated it. This book helps readers connect to their emotions, depression, and their authentic self. The people treated in this book didnt actually have depression or anxiety, though. They had all experienced trauma in their youth, which had made them put up emotional barriers that had been mistaken for depression.
This book is particularly for those who think they could have depression, but are not sure. This book helps readers move forward from those traumatic events. All emotions have value, even if it isnt a medically diagnosed emotion. This book is great for people with emotions of all levels.
- : Hilary Jacobs Hendel , Diana Fosha
- Publisher: Random House
- Pages: 320 pages
The 10-Step Depression Relief Workbook: A Cognitive Behavior Therapy Approach by Simon Rego and Sarah Fader is an effective workout that helps readers understand cognitive behavior therapy with a simple step by step approach. The book helps readers with a personal plan, exercises based on them, and a strategy that helps them be the best versions of themselves that they can be.
- : Simon Rego PsyD , Sarah Fader
- Publisher: Althea Press Workbook edition
- Pages: 180 pages
- Publisher: TWE Media 1 edition
- Pages: 200 pages
- : Katie Hurley LCSW
- : Susan J. Noonan
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