Depression-Free, Naturally : 7 Weeks to Eliminating Anxiety, Despair, Fatigue, and Anger from Your Life
Author: Joan Mathews Larson
List Price: $14.95
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ISBN: 0345435176
Publisher: Wellspring/Ballantine (02 January, 2001)
Sales Rank: 7,234
Average Customer Rating: 3.6 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
May be helpful for mild depression
This book does have the feel of a late night infomercial, filled with statements to pep you up and get you going. I actually don't think that's such a bad attitude for the author to have, especially if the reader is depressed and trying to recover. When you get past the hype, what's left? Well, it does have a good deal of dietary and lifestyle adjustments that will be of use to many people. There is definitely substance here. However, if you suffer from moderate to severe depression or anxiety, I doubt that the suggestions in this book will be enough. Sometimes medication is necessary for complete recovery. Nonetheless, worth a read regardless of the severity of your depression or anxiety. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".
Rating: 5 out of 5
From a depressive's standpoint, useful book.
As someone who has suffered from major depression for nearly 20 years, I read the book quickly and was excited and encouraged by the information therein. The author addresses in part the ramifications of long-term poor nutrition and eating habits and provides numerous screening tests for the reader to determine where he/she may be suffering. As I took the screening tests and read the chapters, I found myself identifying with nearly everything I read and could readily accept the fact that years of malnutrition may be at least partly to blame for my current severe state of depression.Yes, the book suggests megadoses of vitamins, minerals and amino acids, and that can be hard to swallow (literally)! And costly. But you have to go through the book and try to determine what might work best for you. The author also suggests some dietary changes based on how quickly you turn food into energy and your blood type, and of course she espouses regular, consistent exercise. After a short time following her guidelines (as best I can) and cutting out sugar, caffeine, and dairy, I feel better than I have in a long time. Am I cured of my depression? Of course not! That's going to take a long time and I have no doubt that in the future I will have to be ever-vigilant against future relapses. But as of today, at least, I feel less sad, hopeless and unfocused and I credit the book (and my therapy sessions and medications) with contributing to that improvement.
Rating: 1 out of 5
The title tells all...
The pretentiousness and shoddiness of this book are made clear from the title. The very idea that we can become completely free of depression is itself problematic, given that we have so much trouble defining it. The textbook says depression begins when five of nine depressive symptoms are experienced. But what is magic about five from nine? Depression is hard to distinguish, moreover, from grief: persons are prescribed anti-depressants for such grief all the time. "Naturally" suggests another harmful implication of the book: that medications should have the stigma of "artificiality." Naturalness means little. Many things native to nature kill you, and we have the godgiven intelligence to alter the way our brains work. Again, depression cannot be eliminated, nor would we want to submit to the kind of mindless drabness that life would be like without ever feeling a bit of it. This book portends to be a crusade against the mindlessness of drug therapy. Whatever the excesses of anti-depressants may or may not be, this book substitutes a linguistic for a psychological mindlessness. More, it is complicit in the mindlessness of wanting to eliminate pain. Similar Products
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