Customer Reviews

7 Steps To Overcoming Anxiety and Depression

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I assumed I'd open this book and find at least seven chapters describing the steps to overcome depression and anxiety using Null's trademark holistic methodology. Instead, there are 8 pages in the introduction discussing the 7 steps, and then we don't read about them again -- ever. There's a chapter of "mood altering" vegetarian recipes. Some of them sound tasty, but how they're going to alter my mood I'm not quite certain. There's a a chapter of "positive affirmations." For instance, no. 308: "How many people end up wasting a lot of their time trying to go through life achieving things to prove that they're okay?" Where I come from, that's not an affirmation, it's a question, worded in the negative. Then there's a chapter called "88 ways to supercharge your immune system" which is a list of nutrition research abstracts. Gary is a prodigious reader and has done his homework for us on this, but it's not organized in a way that's particularly useful. This should have been Gary's job.

On the plus side, there are several chapters at the beginning of the book which are well written and thoughtful -- although they have nothing to do with the title of the book! Gary has some important things to say regarding giving psychotropic drugs and electro-convulsive therapy to school-age children and the elderly, discusses drug side effects and the problem with our current definition of mental illness. This part of the book is well-written and edited, and it gives me the impression that perhaps Null had a contractual obligation to release a book, or wanted to release those first few chapters, so he threw them together with a bunch of semi-related, half-finished material and gave it a title he thought might sell.

I'm thinking maybe Gary dictated the rest of the book or scribbled it out in a hurry, and the typist didn't have a very good command of the English language. There are so many typographical, vocabulary and grammatical errors that it appears as if, with the exception of the first few chapters mentioned above, the book was not edited or proofed at all. For instance: "Women will commensurate with Oprah, Montell, and Dr. Phil, their favorite soap operas and weepy movie..." (p. xiii). Gary, I think you mean "commiserate." On p. 102 we read: "Candace B. Pert, Ph.D., is mostly known for her discovery of endorphins..." That's wrong. Dr. Pert discovered the opiate receptor, which made the discovery of endorphins possible. In the Protocol for Depression on pgs. 114-15, I found two typos plus the following, which I've reproduced letter for letter: "B-complex, 100 (???? Mg or mcg), once a day." Apparently the typist was either reading Gary's handwriting or listening to his dictation, and because he neglected to indicate whether he was talking about milligrams or micrograms, the typist inserted "????" to indicate the need for clarification. Nobody picked up on those question marks before the book went to press and, hence, we have a useless vitamin protocol. This strikes me as rather counter-productive, given that the aim of the book is to help me overcome anxiety and depression through natural means.

If you're interested in a well-reasoned, political analysis of the flaws in our mental health policies, you might appreciate the first few chapters. If you're looking for vegetarian recipes, there are many good cookbooks on the market. And if you're looking for seven steps to overcoming depression and anxiety that you can follow with confidence, keep looking, because this book does not deliver.

I expected a lot more from this book. It's title proffered so much insight, but in reality it falls very short on help. It's more a tirade on the pharmacuetical industry than a self-help book. It proves confusing for those readers looking for guidance. I'm not sure that the investment of time required to read it is worth enough. It can be a difficult read. Other titles by Gary Null are wonderful. The typos were surprising as well.

This book might better be titled: "How To Be Healthy, In General". There isn't much here specifically addressing mental health. Null goes off on all sort of unrelated tangents. There are extensive lists of what vitamins and nutrients to take, based on various studies. The lists are mind boggling and very repetitive. Null does not attempt to make this information cohesive or narrowed down to the 7 steps promised in the title. There are many typos in this book as well. I do not recommend it.

It is a non-service to treat real concerns lightly.
This book reads like a collection of inept contributions - without substance. Worse, it trivializes serious matters in a very offensive way - ie: p145: with reference to a woman at Auschwitz - "In a small brave voice, she said, Good Morning, Sir"...she was spared because of one life-affirming Good Morning. Yes, positive energy does yield positive solutions."
How ignorant and how insulting! I am sending this book back to the publisher.

I have so many of Gary's books, that I didn't know what to expect. Lately, his books have become more and more interesting to read, as more of the truth is being exposed. In Gary's books of yesteryear, he had a tendancy to back off, and only give you the basics. Not so anymore.

This book is exceptional. I certainly haven't read anything as good on the subject. I especially love the affirmations section of the book, where he outlines 411 unique perspectives on life in general. They're not your basic affirmations that would say something like, "I am a loving person". They're truthful, insightful facts that you can apply to your life on a daily basis.

In the book, Gary also outlines what supplements are good for anxiety and depression. He also recommends juicing and detoxing the liver as a key part of overcoming these two common diseases.

Like I said before, it has to be the more informative, truthful book I've read to date on the subject. I would highly recommend it to anyone who feels a little down on their luck, or to people who have manic depression. You can't go wrong with this book and these recommendations.