Product Description

New Way of Thinking About Depression

What does it really mean to be depressed? You know depression as a collection of symptoms-fatigue, listlessness, feelings of worthlessness-and the source of more than a little pain. But depression is also a signal that something in your life is wrong and needs to be healed. Too often, though, we try to cut off or numb our feelings of depression instead of listening carefully to what they are telling us about our lives. This book offers insightful ways to reframe depression as a gift that can help you transform your life for the better.

Each chapter discusses a different aspect of depression as positive opportunity for growth or change. Depression can be the start of a reorientation in life, a step in the search for meaning, or a chance for letting go of hurtful aspects of the self. It can also be a chance to deal with grief and loss and learn to expand your potential. The book concludes with a section of advice about when it is important to defend against depression and how best to go about it when the need arises.

"This much needed addition to the literature is a must-read for all who are struggling with depression." -Mira Kirshenbaum, author of The Emotional Energy Factor and Everything Happens for a Reason

"Listening to Depression is one of those break-through books that can profoundly alter your view of yourself. If you have ever been depressed-or are even now feeling confused or uncertain about what to do next-this book has the potential to turn on the light of understanding-maybe even of inspiration!" -Carol Adrienne, Ph.D., author of The Purpose of Your Life

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #161361 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 175 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781572244436
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Publisher
The best-selling author of The Gift of ADHD offers cognitive behavioral and mindfulness strategies for transforming depression into a tool for growth; exploring how depression can point us towards important truths about our selves; and discovering how to use our depression to change our lives in meaningful ways.

About the Author
Lara Honos-Webb, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Walnut Creek, CA. She is author of The Gift of ADHD and more than twenty-five scholarly articles. Her work has been featured in Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and Publisher's Weekly, as well as newspapers across the country and national radio and television programs. She specializes in the treatment of ADHD, depression, and the psychology of pregnancy and motherhood and speaks regularly on her areas of expertise. Honos-Webb completed a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at University of California, San Francisco, and has been an assistant professor teaching graduate students. She offers telephone therapy to residents anywhere in California.

Customer Reviews

Breaking free of your depression and despair to be the best you can be!
If you are a self-help aficionado like me who has read hundreds of books, but the result has only been an increase in knowledge about a particular problem, but never finding a clear map through the quagmire of self analysis, this is the book for you! This book is tailored to find what works for you and is free of the "one size fits all" type of advice found in many self-help books. The exercises provided in the book pushed me to go beyond treating my symptoms and expand how I viewed the purpose of my life. The exercises were great at pushing me beyond the typical focus on weaknesses and helped me find my unique strengths and make begin to put them into use.

If you are depressed, here is the way to turn the experience around!
Around in 2 ways: Depression can be an opportunity to look at your past and present life for clues as to your "slowing or shutting down." Once you find what's out of balance in your life, you can slowly turn your life around, and start anew. Not easy to do, but this book can help. Easy to understand exercises and personal reviews. I highly recommend this book!

Moving Beyond Symptoms - Listening and Finding Meaning in Depression
This well-written, thoughtful book tackles the issue of how to reorient your thoughts and behaviors to make bouts of depression opportunities for self-growth and discovery. Typically cast as a condition best avoided, Lara Honos-Webb presents a compelling argument that depression is a message from us, to us, and about us; however, you must be open to listening to that message (not always easy to do). As a mental health professional, I particularly appreciate how she argues that re-casting depression as an asset requires both active engagement (e.g., journal writing) on the part of the individual with reverence for the pain people often exhibit during dark moments of depression. If you enjoyed Dr. Honos-Webb's first book, The Gift of ADHD, you will take comfort in her ability to pull away the veil of depression and inject optimism where only pessimism previously resided. This book is appropriate for all adult audiences, though it is probably most useful for those "protecting against" or trying to learn more about themselves before the onset of a depressive episode; that is, before the most troubling aspects of depression have set-in. If you have interest in learning more about what your depression is trying to communicate to you, I highly recommend this book.