Judging by the statistics, you could be forgiven for thinking we are a nation of depressive; an astounding two-thirds of British adults say they suffer from depression, according to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. What is going on? With more than GBP 27 million prescriptions for antidepressants being written a year, can depression really be an 'illness'? Or do the numbers reflect the lack of proper mental health resources and the stresses and isolation of modern life? When does legitimate grief at life events shade into mental illness, and what is the difference between distress and depression? Well-informed, widely-researched, and punctuated with humour, this book asks some powerful questions about the nature of depression, and looks at how to cope in the face of a condition that robs you of the very skills and energies you need to recover. Topics covered include: how it feels to be depressed; depression through history; the spectre of suicide; the disease model of depression and antidepressant drugs; healing and recovery; how mental and spiritual wellbeing may interlink.
Depression is viewed from a holistic viewpoint as a medical, cognitive, lifestyle and spiritual phenomenon.