Coping With Depression: From Catch-22 to Hope

By Jon G. Allen

Book Overview

Distilling years of experience in educating psychiatric patients and their families about depression, Jon Allen has written a practical book that addresses the challenges depressed patients face on the road to recovery. Allen advocates approaching depression by focusing on the importance of hope, and he helps patients understand depression through two simple ideas: catch-22 and stress pileup.

This book conveys how the symptoms of depression impede all the things depressed persons must do to recover, thus defusing self-criticism while encouraging patients to take satisfaction in small steps toward improvement. And the concept of stress pileup encompasses a developmental perspective respecting the full range of accumulated biological, psychological, and interpersonal stresses that play into depression. This broad understanding helps patients become more compassionate toward themselves and puts them in a stronger position to make use of professional care.

Coping With Depression is written for a general audience, including depressed persons and their family members, as well as professionals seeking a readable integration of current knowledge that they can use to educate their patients. Although written in nontechnical language, the book provides a sophisticated and comprehensive understanding of the psychological development of depression, the neurobiology of the illness, and the full range of evidence-based treatment modalities. All material is buttressed by extensive references to theoretical, clinical, and research literature.

Coping With Depression emphasizes the concept of agency, encouraging readers to take an active role in their recovery. Countering today's trend toward exclusive reliance on antidepressant medication, the book employs the perspective of developmental psychopathology to integrate psychosocial and neurobiological knowledge. The book explains how biological vulnerability is intertwined with stress stemming from insecure attachment, childhood adversity, stressful life events, emotional conflicts, and problems in close relationships. Going far beyond the "chemical imbalance," the author illustrates how the experience of depression is linked to changes in patterns of brain activity as evidenced by neuroimaging studies. Coping With Depression will help readers

- understand the development of depression from a biopsychosocial perspective
- appreciate how depression is compounded by related conditions, including bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, personality disorders, general medical conditions, and suicidal states
- understand how recovering from depression entails working on many fronts, including improving physical health, participating in pleasurable activities, countering negative thinking, resolving internal conflicts, and-above all-establishing more stable and secure attachment relationships
- become knowledgeable about the treatment options that facilitate coping, including cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and psychodynamic psychotherapy as well as medication and combined treatment
- appreciate the centrality of hope in recovery from depression and the challenges to hope that depression poses

To maintain hope, patients, their family members, and clinicians must face the seriousness of the illness of depression and the daunting obstacles to recovery, including catch-22 in all of its manifestations. Throughout the book, Allen reiterates the theme of agency: depressed persons can use their intelligence to understand their illness and do something to recover and remain well, making use of help from others along the way.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585622117
• ISBN13: 9781585622115
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: American Psychiatric Association Publishing
• Length: 341 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Worth taking the time to read

This is a great book especially for anyone dealing with depression. I have read the book and met the author. He is an amazing man and writes so that anyone can understand what depression looks like. There is alot of information in this book and its definately a must read.

Best Book I've ever read on the subject

Dr. Allen has written an excellent book on the realities of living with depression. His compassion and understanding come from years of working with patients with severe, difficult to treat episodes of mental illnesses. I was fortunate to have been able to receive education and treatment from Dr. Allen at the Menninger Clinic in Houston,Texas. With help from Dr. Allen and the rest of the staff, I have been able to better cope with my depression and anxiety than ever before. I have suffered from depression and anxiety for over 20 years, and this book helps to bring me back to stability every time and to again restore hope. It is as if I have been able to bring home one of the most valuable portions of my treatment home to return to again and again as I need the help. Those of you who are not familiar with the Menninger Clinic should be aware that it is one of the top hospitals in the world for the treatment of difficult to treat mental illnesses. This is also an excellent book for sufferers to share with family and friend who are open to learning more about the realities of living with the illness. This is not a quick read but it is worth the time it takes to read and absorb it. Although he does not sugar-coat the experience of the illness, he walks us through it and back out again to find hope. People who have suffered from trauma may also want to read "Coping With Trauma" by Dr. Allen.

Learn the latest facts about depression

This book is an excellent survey of the latest ideas and theories about depression. The book contains up-to-date research with over 500 literature citations throughout the text. In contrast to some experts, the author believes that mood changes are not just due to a single neurotransmitter (such as serotonin). Rather the increase in synaptice levels of neurochemical levels leads to a cascade of changes in the neurons. Cognitive therapy was pointed out to be an effective, proven method of dealing with depression. This therapy involves identifying automatic negative thoughts, challenging them, examining the evidence for the thoughts, and brainstorming for other alternatives. Among the best strategies for getting yourself out of a bad mood is to exercise. Regular aerobic exercise at 70% maximum heart rate seems best. Manic episodes in polar depression can be brought on by sleep schedule disruption. Also, positive life events like a promotion or new romance can trigger mania. This notion goes along with my struggles with polar. The times I've experienced a mania phase have been times of major achievemnet. If you want the lastest ideas about depression, this is the book for you.

Buy This Book: For Sufferers and Caretakers Alike

People who are depressed often have impaired concentration and attention spans. People who are living with or caring for depressed people often have no real clue what the difference is between "ordinary depression" and "clinical depression" and how many kinds of clinical depression there are, etc. This book is written with all these factors in mind. I recommend you read it slowly from beginning to end but if you need to just go to the chapter that addresses what you are experiencing or need to understand the chapters stand alone as well and are broken up into Boldly Headed segments to easily find and re-find the parts of the book one might need to read and re-read over and over to really absorb all the various parts that make up this complex, widely suffered yet misunderstood disease. Most of all, Dr. Allen's compassion and wisdom for his patients and for trying to write a book that is truly accessible is what separates this book from most others. There is nothing gimicky about this book. He makes no claims to "quick fixes" or "magical remedies". But he is highly qualified both professionally and personally to guide the reader to a better understanding and even hope. I recommend this and "The Noonday Demon" by Andrew Solomon as the two best books to buy on depression if you can only get two.