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A Relentless Hope: Surviving the Storm of Teen Depression

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I ordered this book when I was at my wits' end. Our son has been suffering from deep depression and anxiety following a traumatic beating two years ago and has experienced rages, school refusal, and some violent outbursts. My husband and I have been trying to find a "fix" and have taken him to several psychiatrists, social workers, and a psychologist. He has resisted all overtures of help and stops taking medication as soon as he feels better. Recently, my son told me, "You don't know what my problem is. Stop trying to find out what it is, and stop trying to fix me." I identify with many of the author's experiences with Tom, and I found his description of the family's journey enlightening. I feel the truth of much that he says. How brave of him to step back and allow his son to go the unconventional route. How futile it is to lock horns and exhaust each other! I am not a churchgoer, but I appreciate the spirituality of this journey and the role of grace in Tom's healing. I found this book the most real of all the books I have read on teen depression, and it has given me a lot of hope for our situation. I have been searching for steps to follow to fix my son. I realize now that healing from depression is a much more nuanced process and will involve trial and error, patience, time, love, and grace. Thank you for this inspired work.

A Relentless Hope: Surviving the
storm of teen depression
By Gary E. Nelson
A Review by Pat Sullivan, Editor Healing Magazine, www.kidspeace.org.

Gary Nelson chronicles his son's fight against depression and how they joined together as a family to bring Tom back. Gary is a minister turned pastoral counselor who provides interfaith counseling youth with problems very much like his son's, which makes he situation even more poignant as one reads about Tom's slide downward into a depression that nearly took the young man's life.

Gary wrote this wonderful little book for teens, parents, teachers, counselors and pastors in hopes of teaching them the signs and how to help them bring other youth from the brink of deep, deep depression.

Tom had been a normal kid who played baseball very well and had many friends. Around the time he entered high school, he started pulling away from the friends and activities he had previously loved and began feeling "sick" and unable to attend school. He spent more and more time in his room and literally days in bed, and he would have fits of rage during which he would throw things into his walls and ceiling, one day almost shattering his bedroom door. He left the baseball team in anger over criticism by the coach and withdrew from all of his friends. Eventually he came to realize that something was wrong, but he had no control over it. He described it to his parents as "feeling like he was being beaten
from the inside." His sleep patterns changed, he was irritable and angry a lot of the time and was unable to focus on schoolwork, sports or relationships with his friends and families. It was perhaps harder for Gary to watch considering that he was a counselor himself yet unable to reach his own son. Gary also became very concerned that Tom may turn to suicide to stop the pain he was experiencing.

He makes the point that parents need to work "with" their depressed children rather than trying to "fight it" with anger and recriminations. Gary strongly suggests asking your children if you can help them develop a plan for getting through it but not trying to pressure them into feeling better because they have no control over it and feel like greater failures if they cannot meet parent expectations. He also suggests trying to get them into counseling but make sure that you find someone to whom your child can relate and talk. In some cases, medication can help, but that is a big decision that must be made on an individual basis.

Gary and his wife were willing to try some creative and even risky ways of
helping Tom fight his depression and accompanying anxiety, allowing him
to start working at a young age and getting his GED rather than finishing a high school he just could not make himself attend. They bought him a car and encouraged his interest in music, even heavy metal if it made him feel that someone understood his pain.

There are so many strong and hopeful messages in this book to help families get through a child's depression in tact, still spending quality time with other children and not allowing this illness ruin a marriage. Tom is married and doing very well as an adult now, and Gary even describes the wedding that was moved at the last minute due to hurricanes. This wonderful little book speaks of faith and love and hope and a family's decisions to fight to help their child no matter what it took.
It is an inspiration and well worth reading if you have any contact youth who are debilitated by depression.
Copyright 2008 KidsPeace. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

Unlike some other books written about teen issues, the author takes you through their personal struggles with their son which really gives the book credibility. I was impressed with the openness of the book and the reality of what teens go through today.

This book describes teen depression and the what families go through upclose and personal. Definitely a book I would recommend to families that think their child may be suffering with depression. It as an easy read and not overwhelming, yet thorough.

This book does a great job capturing how depression really does feel and effect a family. I've gone through depression myself, and I've never been able to find the words to express how it feels or how it effects anyone, but the author seems to be able to do a good job of doing so. I don't think you can ever know how it feels or what it's like until you go through it yourself, but if you read this book, you can possibly start to see it through a sufferer's eyes.

Gary Nelson brings new insight to overcoming teen depression in this caring book with sensible solutions that he has learned through his experience with his own son. Parents with a teen who is in the throes of clinical depression just feel that they have no place to turn for help. He advises to stop excusing behaviors and to learn to deal with the issues.

Depression and resulting suicide is the leading cause of teen deaths; that is a frightening premise, and gives us reason to fear for our children when we see behavior that could indicate depression instead of just the usual ups and downs of puberty. Nelson addresses the confusion about just what depression is, and how it manifests itself differently in various individuals. It is a clinical disease that often runs in families, but this book will help you to recognize real depression in your teen. Nelson gives you the knowledge to explore the many dimensions and levels of the disease.

That the whole family should have professional therapy is a must. Certainly you will all live with frustration, and frequently desperation. Nelson also addresses spiritual issues, and this book expounds Christian values. It considers other faiths, too, and addresses the importance of faith in the life of a depressed teen. Gary Nelson and his family show what worked for them, and the main point of the book shows that parents must just keep loving their child through his progress in overcoming depression and all of the discouraging backslides that he may experience.

This book is highly recommended for parents, teachers, and counselors dealing with teenagers, as well as the teens themselves.

A Relentless Hope is a thin, very readable book that takes on the issue of teen depression.

Gary Nelson makes a convincing argument that depression is the leading killer of teens. The challenge with addressing depression is that is shows up differently in each person it attacks. Nelson takes some time just to talk about what depression is, and the various faces that it wears. He makes the very important point that depression is a disease and not a weakness in the individual, and points out that depression often runs in families.

The book is also the story of Nelson's son's journey through depression. The author talks honestly about his fears and feeling of helplessness. As a counselor he learned that his own experience gave him added credibility to people who are sharing his struggles. The book is filled with vignettes from Tom's (Gary's son) and others' lives. The chapters are short enough to be read in a sitting, and are filled with small, concrete things that the reader can try in their own situation.

While the book is explicitly Christian in outlook (Gary Nelson was a pastor before becoming a counselor, it speaks to people of other faiths as well. He talks about how children learn their faith, and the importance of spirituality in the life of a depressed teen. The observations are about how the community can support the teen and their family in their journey. He also directs some specific comments to the Christian community that sadly sees depression as the result of lack of faith in God.

The title of this book says it all. A Relentless Hope brings hope to people who are experiencing the hardest, darkest time of their lives. It gives hope to the parents and the teens that life is possible, even in the worst depression. I will keep this book on my shelf and loan out whenever possible.

Armchair Interviews says: Important look at a challenge too many face.

Author Gary Nelson presents one of the most honest and forthright accounts that I have read of working with a depressed teen. He speaks from the personal experience as a parent and as a professional pastoral counseor. This book enables parents to see how compassionate and conscious to be in working with their children. Nelson presents a non-judgmental demeanor and suggests that we rid ourselves of the "teen tapes" that allow us to excuse behaviors instead of educating ourselves and dealing directly with issues. As a ghostwriter, I enjoyed Nelson's use a variety of metaphors to enable us to see and feel as a depressed teen, or parent dealing with such, would feel. Nelson presents symptoms, descriptions of the roller coaster ride of emotions Help Kids Cope with Stress & Trauma I will recommend this book to parents AND teens to empower underdtanding. Mostly, Nelson reminds us that mircales do happen, and the power of finding inner strentghs and gifts Nurture Your Child's Gift: Inspired Parenting brings us to the other side, to resilience. We have yo stretch, embrace, and stretch in relentless effort and caring.

I am the founder and director of a nonprofit suicide prevention organization and am always looking for books and resources about depression and suicide to recommend to others. I found this book to be very easy to read and understand yet very informative at the same time. I think that's what makes it such a great little book - it's so down to earth and honest. I especially liked the spiritual aspect, which gives parents a tool they can use during a difficult time. Having struggled with depression myself, I related to the descriptions, analogies and the spiritual experience associated with the disease. I will definitely be adding it to our Resource Manual and list of recommended books.
A Relentless Hope: Surviving the Storm of Teen Depression

Methodist pastor and psychotherapist, Gary Nelson, has written a book which is a "must read" for every parent of teenagers. The teen years are filled with the ups and downs of a hormonal and emotional roller coaster, as adolescents make their way in the world, begin forming their identity as adults and finally move into completing the developmental task of making their own way in the world, and breaking away from their parents. At best, it is a tumultuous time. But for many teens, as Gary knows all too well, it is also a private hell, besieged with profound lows, uncontrolled anger and misguided efforts to control their pain through drug and alcohol abuse, reckless behavior and even suicidal feelings and thoughts.

Although many books have been written on parenting teens, Gary's book is unique in that he speaks to the issue from the point of view of pastor, therapist, and perhaps most importantly: father of a depressed teen. In this book, originally titled, "Just Keep Loving Them," Gary opens up the doors of his own home and family history, and allows us to see the painful, yet ultimately redemptive, journey that he and his family took with his oldest son, Tom.

Tom became depressed and school phobic in his early adolescence, and he and his family suffered through years of efforts to help him with his depression before he ultimately found his way out of the dark night of the soul that he was experiencing. Gary's approachable style and unflinching honesty allows the reader a look into the world of loving parents, trying desperately to help their beloved son, having to hold onto only faith and that, surely, please God, this ordeal must have some healing at the end of the journey. As his original title shares, Gary and Tom, and the rest of the family, learned that what worked for them was to just keep loving him through all of the pain, the ups and downs, and the discouraging and seemingly endless backslides and impediments to progress.

As a therapist who has worked with countless teens, and a pastor who has worked with youth for much of his life, Gary has a unique perspective on the issue of teen depression, and he works in his book to tell the lay reader not only his son's story, but also crucial information about teen depression and anxiety. As a therapist who specializes in work with teenagers, I deeply wish that every parent who brings their child in to see me would read this book. There is compassion, humor, sensitivity and plain old honesty about the frustrations, failed attempts and desperation that accompany the parents of an adolescent on the journey to get their child healing.

One final caution for the reader: Because I worked closely with Gary during the years that he was, "going through the storm" with Tom, I am personally aware of how very much he advocates individual and family therapy for adolescents suffering from depression and anxiety. In spite of this belief, however, it is possible for the reader to conclude from Gary's book that "it can be done without therapy," since there are few references to therapy in the book. I know for a fact from working with Gary that this is NOT his position at all, and I caution any parent, pastor or teen reading the book to remind themselves as they turn each page: "Do all of this with the help of a pastor, pastoral counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist. Do not try to do it all on your own." As Gary so poignantly learned, and has so honestly shared in his story, even a trained therapist and longtime pastor, with a wife who is an excellent nurse, can still not independently "cure" their child of depression and its devastating effects.

This book is an absolute must read for parents, teens, teachers, pastors and counselors dealing with teenagers. It opens one's eyes to the "back story" behind many teens' angry and seemingly unfathomable impulsive and illogical behavior. And the drumbeat, and heartbeat, which accompany his story, steadily keep reminding us of the aspect more important than any treatment, than any behavior plan, than any parental choices:

Just keep loving them.
Just keep loving them.
Just keep loving them.

In A Relentless Hope: Surviving the Storm of Teen Depression, Gary Nelson offers to teens and their parents what he has learned from walking closely with his son through prolonged depression, and from counseling many struggling teens and their families. His book testifies that God is at work in our world, offering hope and new possibilities that can transcend even life-threatening mental illness. One of this book's strengths is its warm and empathetic approach to suffering teens and their parents. Recognizing how much stress the illness of one of its members places on the whole family, he cautions parents against turning frustration with the illness into anger toward the teen. He encourages parents above all to "just keep loving them."

Nelson's accessible theological reflection is another of the book's strong contributions. He argues that teens need both "a theology that works in the midst of the suffering" and "the opportunity for God to be present through our patient presence."

I wish that as a teen with depression I had had someone like Gary Nelson to lean on and offer hope, to help me understand what was happening to me and encourage me to extend myself some grace. I especially commend A Relentless Hope to parents and other adults who love someone with depression. While some teens may find the hope Nelson writes about through reading his book themselves, most teens with depression will benefit from companions who embody the acceptance and encouragement that Nelson fosters.