Depression: A practical guide

by Harry Barry

A practical, four step programme to help you understand and cope with depression.

As many as 1 in 4 British people have depression at any one time, and despite being so prevalent in our lives and communities, there is still lingering reluctance to talk about depression and its effects. In Depression: A practical guide, Dr Barry is determined to break the silence and provide practical advice to those suffering from depression as well as their families and friends.

Dr Barry reveals a simple, four step programme to deal with depression, from beginning the journey, how to feel better, how to get better and how to stay well. He explores holistic approaches involving lifestyle as well as drug therapy, talk therapy (particularly CBT) and mindfulness.

Previously published as Flagging Depression, this edition has been fully revised and updated.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mental Health

224 pages, Paperback

Published May 28, 2019

Reviews

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a basic guide to coping with depression.

The basic, diet, exercise and stay away from alcohol / drugs messages were OK, but overall I found this book a bit repetitive and lacking in detail. It may have worked better as a magazine article.

Overall rating 2.5

[Chrissie Kremer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to understand and it summarises quite well what depression is and the process people need to go through to learn how to deal with it and get better.

The explanations and examples work really well together and are very interesting.

I don't know if it would help someone who is suffering from depression, but on my side it was certainly helpful to understand what they go through, how they feel and what depression really is.

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library.

This is a nice practical guide on understanding Depression and steps and anecdotes on how to overcome it. It is fairly straightforward and to the point and it doesn't immediately highlight that medicine is the only way to tackle depression, it's more a tool, which was nice to read. I don't really have a lot more thoughts than that.

[1unaaaaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful book. As a person suffered from Depression first handed for 7 years, I wished I encountered this book earlier so that I can help myself and others better. It is always good to read something and actually learn from it. If I can only read one book about Depression, this would be it.

[Nelly Kungu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good book with resources I never heard of. Took some stuff from it that honestly work for me. Probably the best Depression book out there.

[Kristian Gunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 4 page introduction sucked me in because it so explicitly and succinctly outlined exactly how I feel when stuck in my dark periods, so after having tired of reading self-help books, I decided to take the plunge again with this one.
If you have just begun to understand you are suffering from depression and have never ready anything on the subject, then this book is an excellent place to start. A nice, high level, easy to read all-rounder that touches all bases.
Ultimately the book could be summed up in a simple fact sheet however, as the simple steps on how to address the issue are repeated endlessly:
- Acknowledge you have a problem
- Talk to a confidante
- Abstain from alcohol and drugs
- Focus on your nutritional intake, supplementing your diet with B vitamins and Omega 3s
- Exercise for 30 mins a day
- See a GP to discuss potential short term drug treatment to get you into a better space
- Consider therapy (CBT in particular) to address underlying long term issues
- Repeat