Undoing Depression

Depression has been your experience for so long that you’ve begun to believe it is what you are. But it is something you have — just as, for example, one has heart disease. Like heart disease, says psychotherapist Richard O’Connor, depression is fueled by complex and interrelated factors: genetic, biochemical, environmental. In this refreshingly sensible book, O’Connor focuses on an additional factor often overlooked: our own habits. Unwittingly, we get good at depression. We learn how to hide it, how to work around it. We may even achieve great things, but with constant struggle rather than satisfaction, and so we deprive ourselves of true recovery, of deep joy and healthy emotion. Undoing Depression teaches us how to replace depressive patterns of thinking, relating, and behaving with a new and more effective set of skills. O’Connor also provides new information on medications, stress-related afflictions, the benefits of meditation and exercise, and the link between depression and attention disorders. With a truly holistic approach that synthesizes the best of the many schools of thought about this painful disease, O’Connor offers new hope — and new life — for sufferers of depression. “Full of dependable and inspiring information. The intelligence in this book is deeply satisfying.” — Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and Dark Nights of the Soul “This up-to-date, clearly written, and illuminating book about the nature and treatment of depression is just plain wonderful. I view it as a gift to us all.” — Maggie Scarf, author of Unfinished Business and Intimate Partners