You Mean I Don't Have to Feel This Way

by Colette Dowling

Argues that there is a biological basis for depression and addictive disorders and discusses advances in psychopharmacology

Genres: Nonfiction, Mental Health, Self Help

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

An American psychotherapist and writer best known for her 1981 book The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence, which was a New York Times best-seller.

Reviews

[Cindy Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book I read after I was diagnosed with Clinical Depression. It really helped me to better understand what was going on and to know that I was not alone in what I was experiencing.

[Christine Fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, published in 1991, is a bit dated by today’s standards in 2016, but it was amazing how little was known about psychiatric illnesses in the recent past. Ms. Dowling was on the forefront of the core causes of mental disorders and did well to bring this to the forefront of society. For me, the most valuable information I gleaned from it was that most teens who pick up a substance do so because they are self-medicating a mood disorder. This then leads to addiction, which is then treated in rehab, which unfortunately does not treat the root cause of the addiction, which was the previously undiagnosed mood disorder. Thus begins the vicious cycle of a lifelong addict with no ability to get off the wrong track of a misdiagnosis, or in most cases, a missed diagnosis. Teachers are on the front lines when it comes to dealing with students with undiagnosed mood disorders, and educating oneself about them is always a good thing. Too many people are quick to judge someone as being inferior because they suffer from anxiety. The fact is that people cannot control how their brain develops and which neurotransmitters are in working order, now can they?