Living With Dysthymia | Chronic Low Grade Depression

Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression

by: Meri Nana-Ama Danquah

Amazon Price: $16.24 (as of 12/30/2009)

From Publishers Weekly
Danquah, a black single mother and Ghanian-born immigrant, who moved to the U.S. at age six in 1973, has battled melancholy and despair, culminating in episodes of overwhelming depression. A performance artist and poet who has worked as a creative writing instructor, she discusses movingly how she overcame clinical depression in this candid memoir. Addressing the special circumstances of being both depressive and an African American woman, she notes, for example, that talking about one's parents is frowned on in African as well as African American culture. Her parents divorced when she was growing up in Washington, D.C., and she carried around suppressed rage at the father who abandoned her and the mother whose lover she claims sexually abused her. After she fled to Los Angeles in 1991, her world fell apart when, as she tells it, her common-law husband threw her out along with their two-month-old daughter. With the help of therapists, Danquah ultimately confronted these traumas and the self-hatred induced partly by pervasive racism. Yet antidepressant drugs numbed her and drove her to alcohol. She kicked both habits and now overcomes the blues (the book's title is from a Billie Holiday song) through music, meditation and vigilant monitoring to avoid self-destructive situations and moods. She tells her story poignantly and affectingly.

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How You Can Survive When They're Depressed: Living and Coping with Depression Fallout

by: Anne Sheffield

Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 12/30/2009)

"Depression fallout" is the emotional upheaval suffered by the friends and family members of someone who's depressed. Because at any given time, 17 million Americans are suffering from depression, there's a huge number of people suffering from this, says author Anne Sheffield, the daughter of a depressive. She compassionately recalls situations discussed in her support group at New York City's esteemed Beth Israel Hospital to illustrate how "co-sufferers" can successfully cope with their grief, confusion, guilt, and reduced self-esteem.

One of the most overlooked yet thoroughly damaged lots of depression fallout victims, she says, are the toddlers and children of depressed mothers. Children with behavioral problems at home and in school may be struggling for attention they don't get from a depressed parent. She writes, "Although a depressed parent of either sex creates problems for a child, the bulk of the research on parental depression and its effects on young children has zeroed in on the mother, because she is the center of a young child's existence: the primary nurturer, teacher, and emotional and social contact. Ideally, a mother is a good listener, communicator, and problem solver; authoritative without being authoritarian; warm and consistent; and tolerant and patient. Mothers in the grip of depression are often just the opposite: harsh, critical, impatient, irritable, and unaffectionate. And because one in every four women will suffer serious depression at some time in her life--more often than not, right in the middle of her prime childbearing years of twenty-five to thirty-five--the research findings are applicable to a very substantial number of children."

Without being flippant, Sheffield inserts bits of humor into the book. She describes what she calls "sticky-flypaper depressives" as those who blame themselves for everything and anything that has ever gone wrong, whether it be a relationship, or, as one psychiatrist recalled from one patient's session, "the bad Broadway season of 1947." She also gives a thorough analysis of the many causes of depression, illustrates the five stages of depression fallout, and considers the benefits and downfalls of psychotherapy and how a fallout victim may be affected by it. Sheffield offers reassuring advice on how fallout victims can defuse stress and rebuild their self-esteem and social lives, abundant resources and references for support groups and informational organizations, and an extensive list of medications commonly used for the treatment of mental disorders. No matter what the age or relationship of the fallout victim, How You Can Survive When They're Depressed will prove to be a much-needed dose of sympathy.

Undoing Depression

by: Richard O'Connor

Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 12/30/2009)

Product Description
For some people, depression has been a part of their experience for so long that they've begun to believe it's what they are. They become experts at "doing" depression--hiding it, working around it, even achieving great things (but at the price of great struggle, and little satisfaction). In this book, psychotherapist Richard O'Conner shows us how to "undo" depression, by replacing depressive patterns of thinking, relating, and behaving with a new and more effective set of skills. With a truly holistic approach that synthesizes the best of the many schools of thought about this painful disease, O'Conner offers new hope--and new life--for depressives.

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Unmasking Male Depression: Recognizing the Root Cause to Many Problem Behaviors Such as Anger, Resentment, Abusiveness, Silence, Addictions, and Sexual Compulsiveness

by: Dr. Archibald D. Hart

Amazon Price: $11.10 (as of 12/30/2009)

Product Description
Depression is a secret pain at the core of many men's lives, and one that goes largely undiagnosed and untreated. The consequences of not treating male depression are extremely serious. Studies show that suicide is more common in men than women, and tha the male suicide rate is three times higher at midlife than at any other life stage. In Unmasking Male Depression, Dr. Archibald Hart explores the many forms of depression and gives tools for coping with and healing depression in men. Hart also examines the lives of Christian leaders who struggled with depression, such as Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, to reveal the myths surrounding this illness

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Understanding Teenage Depression: A Guide to Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management

by: Dr. Maureen Empfield, Nicholas Bakalar

Amazon Price: $12.00 (as of 12/30/2009)

From Publishers Weekly
Psychiatrist Empfield and coauthor Bakalar present an informative summary of the causes and treatments of adolescent depression, a problem that is on the rise. Since the 1950s, the suicide rate among all teenagers has increased by almost 25% (even higher for black male adolescents); it is the third leading cause of adolescent deaths, just behind car accidents and homicides. They discuss the importance of understanding and addressing depression, a potentially devastating illness that can damage teens' developmental progress and affect their ability to attend school, maintain friendships or pursue everyday tasks. Noting that many medical disorders can cause symptoms similar to those of depression and that some depression indicators sleeping a lot, moodiness or changes in weight are common in normal teenagers, they outline the ways in which clinical depression is diagnosed. Empfield and Bakalar discuss risk factors, such as a depressed parent, as well as the issue of suicide (including a list of warning signs). The authors emphasize that depression is a treatable illness. Finding the right therapist and prescribing effective medication is crucial, since untreated depression can leave lasting emotional scars and may lead to more frequent and more severe episodes of depression in adulthood. This is a comprehensive and informative book on an urgent public health matter.

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