The Secret Strength of Depression, Fourth Edition The Self Help Classic, Updated and Revised with Sections on PTSD and the Latest Antidepressant Medications

by Flach, Frederic; Whybrow, Peter

• ISBN13: 9781578262755
• ISBN10: 1578262755
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-27
• Publisher: Hatherleigh Press

Summary

First published in 1974,The Secret Strength of Depressionhas long been acclaimed as one of the clearest and most helpful books on the subject of depression. In this self-help classic, Dr. Frederic Flach, a prominent New York psychiatrist, shows the 19 million Americans who suffer from depression how they can tap their creative energies to turn their depression into a force for personal growth, rather than a cause for shame. The updated fourth edition includes chapters on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression in children, the role of spirituality in aiding recovery, and the myths and miracles of the new antidepressants.

Author Biography

FREDERIC FLACH, M.D., K.C.H.S. was an internationally recognized psychiatrist and author whose highly acclaimed books include Putting the Pieces Together Again; A New Marriage, A New Life; Resilience; Rickie; The Secret Strength of Angels; and Faith, Healing and Miracles. In 1996 he was awarded the Maxine Mason award by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. He appeared on numerous radio and television programs across the country including Today, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Good Day New York, and Donahue. Dr. Flach died in 2006.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Preface to the Third Revised Edition	p. xv
Preface to the Second Revised Edition	p. xviii
Author's Note to the First Edition	p. xxii
The Nature of Depression	p. 1
An Opportunity for Change	p. 10
The Common Traps	p. 18
How to Recognize Depression	p. 29
Camouflage	p. 39
What to Expect of Psychotherapy	p. 51
Antidepressant Medications	p. 78
Sex as a Barometer	p. 95
Anger and Aggression	p. 106
Guilt	p. 120
Success Is a Risk	p. 130
Dependency: A Delicate Balance	p. 139
Adolescence: The Vulnerable Years	p. 149
Depression and the Elderly	p. 158
Depressogenic Environments	p. 169
Living with Someone Who Is Depressed	p. 182
Breakthroughs in the Biology of Depression	p. 191
The Anatomy of Melancholia	p. 202
Depression in Childhood	p. 214
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder	p. 222
Spirituality and Depression	p. 231
The Best Healing Is Prevention	p. 240
Selected Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 255
Organizations and Support Groups	p. 266
Index	p. 268
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

From the Foreword...

What is depression? Over thirty years ago, back in the early
1970s, judging from the national surveys of the day, the majority of Americans gave a confident answer to that question. Depression was a form of laziness; tangible evidence of a moral turpitude that was best hidden from the public eye. Whether in one's family or in oneself, depression was something to be suffered alone and in silence—as an unwholesome secret. So when Frederic Flach'sTheSecret Strength of Depressionwas first published by Lippincott in
1974 and started to appear in bookstores nationwide, there was some scratching of heads. Surely the title was a bad joke, an oxymoron: depression, we all knew, was weakness—and usually a secret—so where was the strength amidst such malaise?
 
Within the first few pages of readingThe Secret Strength of Depressionthe answer was readily apparent. Dr. Flach's message wassimple and compelling: for the majority of us, a single episode ofdepression is destructive only if we fail to manage it successfully.Indeed, working through the experience and coming to understandthe roots of sadness offers an opportunity not just to learn about oneself,but to be enriched and to grow stronger as a person. For thosewho had suffered in depression's dungeon, confined in public silence,it was a message of hope—as evidenced by how the book flew rapidlyoff the bookstore shelves. Within a few monthsThe Secret Strength of Depressionwas released in paperback and went throughseven printings before a new, revised, edition appeared in 1986.
 
Frederic Flach's own reason for writingThe Secret Strength of Depressionwas his fascination with the complexity of humanbehavior, and his hope of advancing public and professional appreciationof that complexity. Dr. Flach was entirely comfortable intearing down the usual fences that give comfort in thinking aboutcomplicated things in abstract, linear ways, circumscribing precisecategories such as sociology, psychology and biology. Thus in theearly 1970s, when mainstream psychiatry was casting aside thecloak of Freud's dynamic parapsychology in preparation for a leap into the vortex of psychopharmacology and neurotransmitters,Frederic Flach took pains to avoid such fractionation. As a consummatepsychotherapist and physician, who earlier in his careerhad been involved in basic research, and was above all a teacher, Dr.Flach's goal withThe Secret Strength of Depressionwas one of dynamicintegration of the best thinking in the field, presented in engaging,simple prose. With similar concerns for accessibility it is a bookfilled with personal stories, for stories are the way we make sense ofthe world. Moods—including sadness, Dr. Flach insisted—are part ofthe human condition and can only be successfully managedthrough an understanding of the central role that emotional experienceplays in the narratives we construct for ourselves.
 
Frederic Flach was right in his insistence and in his focus, which is what has madeThe Secret Strength of Depressiona timeless, classic text for the general reader. The shifting pendulum of emotion is vital to staying alive and to negotiating everyday stresses and strains. Emotions are part of a pre-verbal system of social communication that we share with our mammalian forebears. Even though, as human beings, we have the extraordinary facility of language, we use emotion everyday to communicate our desires to each other, and to monitor our social environment. Emotion is part of the brain's early warning system, intimately linked to the body's ancient mechanisms of survival. When the swing of the emotional pendulum signals that events are not moving fav

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Excerpted from The Secret Strength of Depression by Frederic Flach
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.