A Breath of Fresh Air - Rated 
I am a Mental Health Support Worker working with people diagnosed with severe and enduring mental illness - schizophrenia, BiPolar Disorder etc. This book is a Breath of Fresh Air. It offers practical methods that can be used by people with depression, those offering them support, or their carers. There is a lot of material here that can be used with the rcovery approach and WRAP - Wellness recovery action planning.It also vigorously challenges the medical model and the idea that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain that can de addressed only by medication.
The book forms part of a larger theory of mental distress that is elegant and intriguing. It can be easily verified by personal experience and practice. Try it and see.
Not too convinced by this book - Rated 
At first glance this book seemed very interesting to me. However, I am really quite disappointed by its content. A lot of what the authors present as new approaches to lift depression fast is common sense - get out more, engage in social life, find meaningful activities to get your life back... I know that I should do all these things, but I really cannot motivate myself to do any of that when I am in my black hole. It might be a different story to actually work with one of the human givens therapists. On a different matter, I think they are too evangelical about their dislike of antidepressants and of other approaches to therapy. Not too motivating to be doing a therapy which you thought was moving on well and then be told by the authors that it is all rubbish!
The stuff about sleep patterns and depression was very interesting, and, wanting to learn some more about that, I tried to find published research by Joe Griffin about this (because the authors say that the dream/sleep stuff is built on his research) but could find nothing. That was very disappointing! So, all in all, I was not too happy about this book.
"Stressed or Depressed this is the best" - Rated
My stress had built up through illness and continual problems over a 10 year period and I could not see any light at the end of the tunnel because my life is still the same.
I am only half way through this book and am so impressed had to tell you straight away, not only did this book confirm some of the things I already had been saying to my partner but also showed how poor sleep through worrying caused most of our problems.
I also found out that in order to kick my problems I should have been increasing my meds which I was never advised to do, stress effects our hormones, so if you are hormonal, or have a hormone disease it really is very hard to do without knowing this.
Well done to the authors for explaining in one book what thousands of "So called specialists" don't know or can't be bothered to pass onto their patients.
Depressed? Read this book! - Rated
This book is a must read for anyone needing to understand or recover from depression. It explodes the myths that keep too many people on medication when they don't need to be. The book is written in clear English and should be compulsory ready for every doctor!
a good guide - Rated
Although this book appears to be addressed to the person who is depressed, I would think that if you are seriously depressed you would struggle to read any book on depression! However if you want to know more about how to prevent depression from getting a hold, living with and supporting someone suffering with depression or working with people with depression, then this book is a good guide. Working from the Human Givens approach the book's real value is in guiding the reader to understand the causes of depression, the links to sleep and excessive dreaming, and the hope that depression is not something that you have to live with. The book very usefully explains that the reason anti-depressants work is that they actually reduce the amount of time you spend dreaming.
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