Product Description

This bestselling workbook provides interactive exercises that help readers take responsibility for their own wellness and teach essential coping skills, such as tracking and controlling moods, building a support system, increasing self-confidence and self-esteem, avoiding conditions that can exacerbate mood swings, and using relaxation, diet, and exercise to stabilize moods.A major feature of the second edition is a new chapter that details a step-by-step process to help readers develop their own plan for managing symptoms and staying well. The second edition also contains an updated list of resources, including an extensive list of helpful web resources, as well as expanded material on specific treatment strategies and updated resources for mental health professionals.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #404694 in Books
• Published on: 1992-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 305 pages

Amazon.com Review
It may be difficult for those suffering from depression to add a little work into their day; simply getting out of bed can seem like plenty of work. But if you are newly diagnosed or experiencing moderate problems with depression or bipolar disorder, The Depression Workbook might be a literal lifesaver.

The first section is especially useful to new patients just learning to navigate the signs, treatments, and vocabulary of depression. Clearly written overviews of specific symptoms are coupled with space for you to write in your own thoughts on treatment, prognosis, and your ultimate goals. Checklists and daily planners help to identify both areas of difficulty and positive experiences; later in the book, you'll find charts for tracking medications, diet, and doctor visits.

A full section is devoted to the establishment and maintenance of a support group. Ideas range from open discussions with family members to seeking out volunteer work, and it's this section that may be the trickiest for the depressed to work through. Finding the strength to make new friends may seem impossible at first, but author Mary Ellen Copeland spreads plenty of warmth, encouragement, and personal experience among her directives. --Jill Lightner

About the Author
Mary Ellen Copeland, M.S., is a distinguished teacher and lecturer from Brattleboro, Vermont.

Customer Reviews

If You've Been Recently Diagnosed - This Book Is A Lifesaver
This is one of the "must have" books for anyone newly diagnosed with depression or bipolar disorder (manic-depression). It is invaluable in teaching both sufferer and supporter the symptoms and symptomatic behavior associated with these brain disorders.

It is also one of the best books I have read for learning coping skills. Coping skills are needed while you are trying to find a treatment to end your suffering. Since that can take weeks, months or even years, coping skills are vital to keep you on track with your treatment efforts - and to help you during times of suicidal ideation.

This book was monumental in helping me get through a severe depression that lasted nonstop for half-a-decade. Now that I have been symptom-free for the last five-years (due to medication), I am able to look back in hindsight to see what got me and my wife, Melissa, through that personal nightmare. This book was one of those lifesaving gifts which got us on track immediately after I was diagnosed. It is a book of which we are most grateful.

I recommend this book to all my readers, and anyone suffering with depression or biplar disorder.

Not Very Helpful for the Severly Depressed or Isolated.
It's obvious from the other reviews that this book has been very helpful to many people suffering from depression. However, it ended up making me feel even more depressed than I was before. It gives suggestions such as surrounding yourself with things to remind you of why life is worth living, but the severely depressed may be so isolated that they really have nothing to live for. It also suggests a heavy reliance on support from friends and family, and, again, a severely depressed person may no longer have friends or close family members to rely upon. I can imagine that people suffering from mild to moderate depression would be helped a great deal by this book, but for those who are so depressed that they've withdrawn from the world and really have nothing left to live for, this book will only make them feel more depressed, hopeless, and isolated from the world.

Every Depressed Person Should Read This Book!
I have recently been diagnosed w/depression & my counselor recommended this book to me. It's great. I love the fact that it makes me take responsibility for my own healing. This book makes the reader an active participant and holds the reader accountable. The workbook exercises are great and extremely thought-provoking. They are helpful and have given me new insights. The text treats people with respect, is never "preachy", and doesn't trivialize the depression. Buy this book!