Active Treatment of Depression

"Depression is a chronic, recurring illness, one that affects twenty percent of the American population. Research confirms that the majority of people suffering from depression do not respond quickly to standard prescribed treatments, whether therapeutic or pharmacological in nature. In fact many existing treatments for depression actually exacerbate the disease. In this provocative book, Richard O'Connor argues that people with depression need a different approach to treatment than any available today." "The book describes what it is like to live with depression - the effects, the stigma, the difficulty in getting treatment - and then introduces the "common sense" model of depression. This model emphasizes the multiple biopsychosocial systems involved in the illness. Next, the author outlines the "skills of depression," ways of being that reinforce depressed states. These include stuffing feelings, depressed logic, victimizing, passive aggression, and recruiting accomplices. The balance of the book is a detailed guide to the principles of active treatment. Here, O'Connor walks the reader through the steps of conducting a systematic assessment of the patient, engaging the patient's emotions in the treatment process, and the plusses and minuses of antidepressant medications. There is a thorough discussion of the therapist's need for flexibility in the use of his own experience with the patient."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Mental Health. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.