Depression: Selected Self-Help Books
Occasional sadness is normal in life. However depression is more than occasional sadness.
Persons experiencing depression have very hard time engaging in tasks that were quite easy
before they got depressed and often are unable to derive enjoyment from activities or
relationships that used to sustain them. Some complain of loss of energy, others yet experience
prolonged periods of despair that either renders them numb or leads to thoughts of suicide.
We can group difficulties associated with depression into five categories: (1) a tendency to
regard the world through highly negative lens and a pervasive sense of helplessness or
uselessness, (2) difficulties with doing what needs to be done, (3) deterioration of relationships,
(4) inability to feel positive emotions, and (5) thoughts of suicide. Each of these difficulties may
require a slight adjustment in approach.
Mind over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think (1995) by
D. Greenberg and C. Padesky focuses on how our thoughts influence our perception of the world
and of ourselves. This book comes with a lot of worksheets and has the reader examine not only
his or her immediate thoughts - it goes deeper to the level of the beliefs that we have about our
own identity and the strategies we have developed for dealing with life in general. Looking at
the content of our thoughts and experimenting with our assumptions about life is key to this
book. By contrast Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic
Unhappiness (2007) by M. Williams, J. Teasdale, Z. Segal and J. Kabat-Zinn focuses more on
the experience of thinking and less on the content of our thoughts. It comes with an instructional
CD and introduces meditative techniques to facilitate distancing oneself from depressive
thoughts. This book aims to assist us with developing a nonjudgmental stance towards the
workings of our mind. This is important as persons with depression not only experience negative
thoughts that serve to maintain painful emotions, but also blame themselves for having such
thoughts.
Overcoming Depression One Step at a Time: The New Behavioral Activation Approach to
Getting Your Life Back (2004) by M. Addis and C. Martell is a good resource for anyone who
has difficulties with motivation. The book expresses the authors’ hesitation about the use of
antidepressants, which may be upsetting to persons who benefited from their medications.
Despite that, it offers a well researched guide on how to get moving again. It also recognizes
that depression is never simple and that some persons may in fact experience anxiety when
attempting to engage in tasks that they have been postponing. The alternatives include
W. Knaus’ Procrastination Workbook: Your Personalized Program for Breaking Free from
Patterns that Hold You Back (2002) and S. Hayes’ Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The
New Acceptance Commitment Therapy (2005). The first has been written to address our
tendency to postpone in general and does not necessarily target depression. The second
encourages the reader to identify important values and to live a value-congruent life while
learning to distance ourselves from interfering processes in our minds.
Joanna Szczeskiewicz, MSW, RSW
4275 Village Centre Court, Suite 206  Mississauga, ON L4Z 1V3  416-550-1072  www.vcccbt.com  [email protected]
The Interpersonal Solution to Depression: The Workbook for Changing How You Feel by
Changing How You Relate (2005) by J. Pettit, T. Joiner and L. Rehm offers an honest look at
how depression impacts relationships. It is a valuable guide for anyone who wants to change
their relationship patterns but it may be difficult to implement when a person experiences severe
to moderate depression. Persons in such a state may regard this book as critical while in fact it
aims to build awareness of our own actions.
Compassionate Mind: A New Approach to Life Challenges (2010) by P. Gilbert notes that our
emotional experiences depend on interaction between our ability to accomplish our goals, our
ability to detect and escape threats, and our ability to self-sooth and experience contentment.
This book blends mindfulness, traditional cognitive behaviour therapy and evolutionary
psychology to offer insight into building of self-compassion. It focuses on explaining human
reactions and less on self-help exercises. Gilbert’s Overcoming Depression: A Self-Help Guide
Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (2009) follows a more typical self-help format, offers
solid information about depression, traditional CBT strategies and a good insight into guilt,
shame, anger and compassion training.
Choosing to Live: How to Defeat Suicide through Cognitive Therapy (1996) by T. Ellis and
C. Newman is a workbook that talks honestly about suicide and engages the reader in
development of coping strategies to survive suicidal crisis, building of self-awareness, problem
solving and creation of personal life philosophy. It also comes with a clear guide for those who
are concerned about a person at risk of suicide. It may be beneficial to supplement Choosing to
Live with a book that focuses on building of emotion regulation skills that can be called upon in
times of crisis. Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Your Life: How Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Can Put You in Control by S. Spradlin is a good example of such a book.
Research shows that one in twenty people may be thinking about suicide at any given time.
However, chronic thoughts of suicide are different from a fleeting ideation and a person who
experiences them requires help. Presence of suicidal thoughts in conjunction with high level of
agitation represents a mental health emergency. It is better to use a self-help book than to be left
without anything but a risk of losing one’s life to suicide is simply too real to rely on self-help
alone. Mobile Crisis Response – Peel can be reached 24/7 at (905) 278-9036. The bottom line
is: if you reached this point, don’t stay there alone.
Joanna Szczeskiewicz, MSW, RSW
4275 Village Centre Court, Suite 206  Mississauga, ON L4Z 1V3  416-550-1072  www.vcccbt.com  [email protected]