Undoing Depression What Therapy Doesn't Teach You and Medication Can't Give You

by O'Connor, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780316043410
• ISBN10: 0316043419
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-07
• Publisher: Little, Brown Spark

Summary

Like heart disease, says psychotherapist Richard O'Connor, depression is fueled by complex and interrelated factors: genetic, biochemical, environmental. In this refreshingly sensible book, O'Connor focuses on an additional factor often overlooked: our own habits. Unwittingly we get good at depression. We learn how to hide it, how to work around it. We may even achieve great things, but with constant struggle rather than satisfaction. Relying on these methods to make it through each day, we deprive ourselves of true recovery, of deep joy and healthy emotion. UNDOING DEPRESSION teaches us how to replace depressive patterns with a new and more effective set of skills. We already know how to "do" depression-and we can learn how to undo it. With a truly holistic approach that synthesizes the best of the many schools of thought about this painful disease, O'Connor offers new hope-and new life-for sufferers of depression.

Author Biography

Richard O'Connor is the author of four books, Undoing Depression,Active Treatment of Depression, Undoing Perpetual Stress, and Happy At Last. For fourteen years he was executive director of the NorthwestCenter for Family Service and Mental Health, overseeing the treatment of almost a thousand patients per year. He is a practicing psychotherapist, with offices in Canaan, Connecticut, and New York City, and he lives with his family in Lakeville, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition	p. VII
Author's Note	p. IX
Introduction	p. 3
What We Know About Depression	p. 11
Understanding Depression	p. 13
The Experience of Depression	p. 27
Diagnosing Depression	p. 38
Explaining Depression	p. 60
Learning New Skills	p. 75
The World of Depression	p. 77
Emotions	p. 84
Behavior	p. 102
Thinking	p. 124
Stress and Depression	p. 138
Relationships	p. 157
The Body	p. 171
The Self	p. 185
Treating Depression Medically	p. 197
Psychotherapy, Self-Help, and Other Means to Recovery	p. 220
Putting the Skills to Work	p. 233
Work and a Sense of Purpose	p. 235
Living, Together and Apart	p. 253
Children and Adolescents	p. 274
Community	p. 295
A New Synthesis	p. 305
The Rest of the Story	p. 307
A Program for Recovery	p. 312
Beyond Recovery	p. 324
Appendix: Organizations Promoting Recovery	p. 337
Recommended Reading	p. 339
Acknowledgments	p. 345
Notes	p. 347
Index	p. 367
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