Overcoming Depression: A Step-by-Step Approach to Gaining Control Over Depression [Paperback]

Paul Gilbert (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195143116 | ISBN-13: 978-0195143119 | Publication Date: May 24, 2001 | Edition: 2

St. John's Wort, Prozac, psychotherapy, support groups--today's individual suffering from depression has a laundry list of treatments to choose from. For many, Paul Gilbert's self-help manual Overcoming Depression--based on the highly effective technique of cognitive behavioral therapy--will provide a lifeline to recovery and a better future, as a way to understand and thus resist the downward slide of depression, and as a resource to supplement therapy or medication.
Cognitive behavioral therapy, which treats emotional disorders by changing negative thought-patterns, is now internationally established as a key method for overcoming conditions such as depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and eating disorders. The principle behind this form of therapy is that our thoughts have a major impact on our emotions: a person who goes through life thinking "I am unlovable," or "I'll never achieve anything," will find constant evidence to support his or her beliefs. In Overcoming Depression, Gilbert explains the many forms and causes of depression and lays out clinically proven techniques for dealing with this debilitating condition. This book will help people gain insight into problem areas such as perfectionism, shame, anger, and aggression, and how these areas can become exacerbated by depression.
Overcoming Depression illustrates a systematic program of treatment by which people can monitor their thoughts, learn to recognize negative patterns, and challenge them. With step-by-step suggestions, case examples, thought-monitoring sheets, and practical ideas for gaining control over depression, Gilbert offers a course of action for those suffering from depression to change the way they think about themselves and their problems.
The Second Edition of Overcoming Depression presents new statistics and findings from the last three years, and offers new chapters on causes for depression including "Biology and Stress," "How Evolution May Have Shaped Depression," and "Early Life, Psychological and Social Aspects." In a new chapter on guilt Gilbert differentiates between guilt and shame, and examines the relationship between guilt and depression and how to deal with those who make us feel guilty. Finally, a new preface and a new brief discussion of St. John's Wort complete the text.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Paul Gilbert] is a scholar of the first-rank...who weaves together a variety of subject areas, drawing on his vast knowledge.... This is a book that is highly accessible...very readable and extraordinarily useful."--Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy

Praise for the previous edition: "This book contains the conventional material that you would expect to find in a self-help guide to cognitive treatment for this condition and also contains some more unusual, and particularly useful, material that stems from Paul Gilbert's own work on evolutionary aspects of these kinds of disorders (the material on shame and anger in particular). It is therefore likely to be of interest, and I think it is also written in a way that makes this material easily accessible."--Gillian Butler, Ph.D., Consultant Clinical Psychologist, The Warneford Hospital and co-author of Managing Your Mind.

Praise for the previous edition: "I like Paul Gilbert's book and see this as a useful alternative to some of the other American literature that we use."--Professor Jan Scott, M.D., Division of Psychiatry, University of Newcastle

Praise for the previous edition: "Overcoming Depression tackles the stigma attached to feeling low and offers step-by-step help programs and encouraging case studies. These guides are eminently practical--but, perhaps more important, they don't just tell you what to do, they tell you why it is also logical to do it...an ideal place to start finding out about cognitive behavioral therapy."--Heres Health

About the Author

Paul Gilbert has over twenty years of experience treating depressed people. He is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby and Head of Specialty, Adult Mental Health for the Southern Derbyshire Mental Health Trust.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (May 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195143116
• ISBN-13: 978-0195143119
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every depressed or insecure person should read this book - and I should know., December 31, 2005

By 

MikeK - See all my reviews

This review is from: Overcoming Depression: A Step-by-Step Approach to Gaining Control Over Depression (Paperback)

I know the guidelines asks us not to comment on other reviews but I signed up to write a review specifically because I was afraid the last review might turn off someone like me who really could benefit from reading this excellent book. I don't know why the last review mischaracterized the book - I wonder if she's got the right book, because she doesn't mention a single thing about what this book is entirely about: recognizing the negative leaps in logic that we make that bring us down. It's very rational and well-thought out and it's the first thing that's given me any hope in a very long time. It's all about normal mental habits and trying to break them when they aren't helping us. Warm milk? Naps? If they're in there somewhere, I must have missed them. I don't know what that person has against this book but it sounds like they didn't read it.

The book's author seems to understand a lot about what it's like to be depressed, much more than any of my clueless therapists ever have. The first thing I saw from it is that most of my depression and sadness isn't a result of what happens to me - it's a result of my *reactions* to what happens to me, and the conclusions I draw from them without questioning. I don't know how this sounds to someone who hasn't read it, I know I'm usually really skeptical about things, but this book really helped me, and nothing else ever has.

I was thumbing through this book in the store, and the example that convinced me to buy the book goes something like this... Let's say you're expecting a phone call from a friend/lover and they don't call. Your line of thought might go something like this:
"He/she hasn't phoned.
This is because he/she has forgotten about me.
Maybe he/she had better or more fun things to do.
If he/she cared about me, he/she would have phoned.
Therefore, he/she doesn't really care.
I don't ever seem to be able to find someone who cares about me.
What's wrong with me?
Maybe I am just too boring and unattractive.
I'll never have a good, long-lasting relationship.
I'll always end up abandoned.
Life is completely pointless and empty."

Well, I saw that, and I said, omigod, that's ME... 20 years of medication and therapy and nobody ever pointed out to me that I do that. I take one possibly negative thing, and make a quick cascade of negative conclusions about it, and those conclusions get me down, maybe more so than whatever set them off in the first place. It's almost subconscious but I see it now, it's not the person not calling that's getting me down - it's me doing it to myself!

And that's just the starting point. It's in the introductory first part of the book's three parts. For the rest of the book he has specific exercises aand concrete suggestions to help you see exactly where you habitually do things to bring yourself down worse than you would be otherwise. Hey, maybe life really *does* suck - but that doesn't mean you have to make it even worse for yourself. And that's sure what I was doing.

After 20 years of chronic depression, with no help from medication or therapy (and I've been through a LOT of both) this book was the first time I ever saw light on the horizon. I'm far from being free of depression, but for the first time since I was 14 it at least seems possible. I strongly recommend checking it out.

So, if any of this sounds at all like you, here's what I think you should do... Ignore what total strangers on some website say. I hope Amazon will allow me to say something like this on their website, because I'm saying it in the hope it will help someone like me... But what you should do is go to your local bookstores, find a copy of this book and thumb through it yourself just to see, then if you decide you want it, come back and and order it from Amazon! But please, don't let that one weird review dissuade you from checking it out. I highly recommend it. I found it completely amazing, I'm really glad I found it, it's the first thing that's helped give me hope in a very long time.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A resource book to keep at your bedside., June 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Overcoming Depression: A Step-by-Step Approach to Gaining Control Over Depression (Paperback)

I have been suffering from depression for many years,unaware of my own self destructive thoughts. Mr Gilbert is a god send. He approaches the subject very compassionately and set me on the road to a heathier way of thinking. Any time I start to feel that "black dog of depression" bite at my heels, I pick up this book to refresh my skills in logical healthy thinking. I have reread this book so many times the cover is wearing out.
My advice is don't just read it once.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book if you are depressed and skeptical, February 13, 2006

By 

Thomas Smith - See all my reviews

This review is from: Overcoming Depression: A Step-by-Step Approach to Gaining Control Over Depression (Paperback)

This book treats the reader very well. He acknowledges the problem of getting started with a program to overcome depression, and even suggests which chapters to skip if you want to get going quickly. Mr. Gilbert never talks down to the reader. For its focus on practical results and its thoughtfully organized, compassionate approach to the reader, I say this book is a cut above all others I've seen and a great thing to have if you would like to overcome depression. If you are depressed, then you will know that many writings on this subject speak an alien language that makes it clear that the author doesn't really understand depressed people. This book is the opposite of that. It anticipates your skepticisms and doubts in a straightforward way that are incredibly useful in keeping your mind applied to the goal of overcoming depression.