Getting Up When You're Feeling Down: A Woman's Guide to Overcoming and Preventing Depression [Paperback]

Harriet Braiker (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0595182720 | ISBN-13: 978-0595182725 | Publication Date: May 20, 2001 0

You've got your health, a good job and a family you love. So why do you find yourself feeling down? Every woman experiences the fatigue, guilt, irritability, low self-esteem, and lack of energy commonly called "the blues." But as Dr. Braiker explains, you can change how you feel, and she provides you with the tools to overcome and manage blue moods. You will learn how to determine the cause of low moods, avoid bouts of the blues, regulate your worries and build your self-esteem. With her three-step Triple A program, Dr. Braiker reveals all the secrets of psychological fitness that have worked for hundreds of her patients, so women won't ever have to feel "down" again.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Occasional negative moods (as opposed to major clinical depression) should not be cause for alarm, according to clinical psychologist Braiker. Her upbeat guide, couched in psychological jargon, is addressed in particular to women who attempt to excel in every sphere. She offers a drugless "Triple A" program to help head off, shorten or alleviate emotional mood swings often due to fatigue, stress and hormonal variations. If frequent and severe enough, she warns, such swings may result in feelings of low self-esteem, irritability and guilt; they can cause overeating, drinking, uncontrolled crying and can adversely affect physical health, along with personal and professional relationships. The program uses examples, questionnaires, daily mood rating forms and diaries to help women to discern the physical and/or mental causes and to reverse negative moods through exercise, social and other activities. First serial to McCall's and Working Mother; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates .
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Braiker presents a simple three-step method for overcoming "the blues"the low self-esteem, fatigue, guilt, lack of energy, and irritability that occasionally affects every woman. She argues that most cases of mild depression can be helped by applying her Triple A Program: Accept, Attribute, Act. Accept that you are feeling depressed; attribute your feeling to its causes but do not dwell on them; act in ways that will restore a positive mood. A series of questionnaires helps readers determine the nature of their depression and whether or not they need professional consultation. This compassionate book, illustrated with case histories, asures readers that they are not alone and provides the tools to overcome mild depression. Jodith Janes, Univ. Hospitals of Cleveland
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Backinprint.com (May 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595182720
• ISBN-13: 978-0595182725
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Helpful for Overcoming Depressions, May 7, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Getting Up When You're Feeling Down: A Woman's Guide to Overcoming and Preventing Depression (Paperback)

I still have my 1990 copy of Braiker's "Getting Up When You're Feeling Down," and I will have to replace it. I've read it so many times that the spine is broken and the book is held together with tape. The book is very helpful for women who are dealing with depression. Whether you're suffering a garden variety "blue mood" from a bad month, or you've had several terrible years, this book gives a lot of simple psychological techniques for keeping your moods "up" and coping with depressions when they do occur. Even people taking medication for more serious depressions will benefit from the simple mental exercises she recommends for "halting" negative thoughts; the book provides valuable insights on women's thought patterns, and how we can stop depressions from worsening. I came to Amazon today to buy this book for a friend!

5.0 out of 5 stars Much good advice on contending with Depression, August 11, 2007

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Getting Up When You're Feeling Down: A Woman's Guide to Overcoming and Preventing Depression (Paperback)

This is a very intelligently written guide on contending with Depression.It special focus on women in depression, and ways they can admit their depression to themselves, understand it and act upon it. Many of its tips are I believe extremely useful, for instance that of avoiding excessive rumination when one is depressed, and instead finding outlets in action. There is also clear analysis presented here of the way Depression is a disorder in thought, and recommendations on how the depressed person should begin to avoid the kinds of distortions common in depressed people. Among those distortations are undue generalization, selecting always the bad detail in a situation and focusing on that, imagining one can read the thoughts of others , and imagining them hostile when there is no real evidence for this.
The author is clearly a knowledgable professional with long experience in the field. I do have one problem with the book. It is perhaps too long, too detailed, too filled with information and questionnaires for most of those who are depressed to deal with. After all when a person is depressed their level of energy, including intellectual energy is lower, their ability to contend with outside things is less.
I believe a more condensed book, and one focusing on aspects of action, the practical steps to help take one out of Depression would be helpful for more people.
Nonetheless this work seems to me a fundamentally correct way of looking at the problem, a problem which in one way or another confronts most people at some time in their lives.