So I thought I'd start by mentioning a few books that really helped me out since October. I’m not saying that they will magically take away the pain of depression, but I remember that when this all started, my mind was such a whirlwind of chaos trying to contemplate the colossal drop in my mood. I had no idea what was going on, and until I read these two books some 3-4 months later, I had no sense of what had happened to me.
The first is a book by Matthew Johnstone called 'I Had a Black Dog.' It is incredibly easy to read; in fact it is practically a picture book and can be read inside ten minutes. However, it is one of the best simplified books on describing depression that I have read. I was given it by a friend of mine who had bought it to understand my emotions and feelings. I would recommend borrowing this from a local library or buying it especially if you have been recently diagnosed with depression, or you are the loved one of somebody who you think may be going through it.
Depression is one of the hardest things to explain to people who have never experienced it, but I really believe this book does it some justice. For me, it was really important to finally put into words exactly how I'd been feeling, and the fact that it was a 'normal' symptom to someone who is depressed. For example, I couldn’t understand how I was so clinically efficient at masking all of my symptoms to those around me for an entire term at university - in fact even my roommate hadn’t noticed until I told him! 'Keeping face' as I called it, but the book explains that this is a natural reaction to anyone that is hit with depression, because they feel like it’s almost a dirty secret they have to keep hidden.
Another much more in depth book is 'Depressive Illness - Curse of the Strong.' This was also given to me by the same friend who gave me the previous book, and takes much longer to read. The downside is that it only talks about stress induced depression - i.e. depression born out of trying to do too much all the time. However, if you think that this might be related to you, or someone you know, then I would suggest reading it. But PLEASE, only read a few pages a day. When this was given to me I raced through the book in two days, as the concepts are quite easy to get your head around. However, I ignored the advice of the book itself, and when I went to read over it again, a few pages at a time; I found that I hardly remembered anything.
It goes over the depression, how and why it may have been induced, and steps to recovery and keeping the depression away for good. I have to say that I only ever read it in my most angry moods, but it definitely has some helpful tips and well worth a read.
Please let me know if these books where at all helpful, and if there are any others out there you would strongly recommend, comment away!
Milly
1 comment:
I haven't been able to find either book at our library but have requested they acquire them. I just wanted to let you know that my specialty is reading self-help books but not doing any of the exercises or taking the advice. It doesn't work too well. I'm working on doing the "few pages at a time" thing. Took me way too long to figure it out.
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