INTRODUCTION: HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

“Anyone who survives a test is obliged to tell his story.”

—Elie Wiesel, author and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps

If you have picked up this book, it is no doubt because either you or someone you love is in pain. I understand that pain. I know what it is like to feel the despair, the torment, the hopelessness of major depression. I have experienced it and have survived, and my message is that you can get through it, too. There is hope. That is why I have written this book.

Healing from Depression: 12 Weeks to a Better Mood is a resource guide for anyone who is struggling with depression, manic depression (also known as bipolar disorder), anxiety, or a related mood disorder. The book is divided into three parts. In Part One, I tell the story of how I descended into and emerged from the hell of a major depressive illness. This narrative originally appeared in a book called, When Going Through Hell…Don't Stop! A Survivor's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety and Clinical Depression. I pray that my story of rebirth will validate your reality, reassure you that you are not alone, and give you the hope that healing is possible.

In Part Two of the book, I present my “better mood recovery program”—a body, mind and spirit approach for living optimally and reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression. The better mood program was hatched in the crucible of my personal torment. Because my depression did not respond to antidepressant medication, I was forced to put together my “daily survival plan for living in hell”—a series of coping strategies that kept me alive day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute. These survival strategies were based on five different kinds of self-care activities—physical self-care, mental-emotional self-care, social support, spiritual connection and lifestyle habits.

After my recovery, my daily survival plan became “my daily wellness plan” which I used to stabilize my moods and to minimize the potential for relapse. On the opening page of this book, I share these survival tips and on the facing page I have presented my therapeutic self-care chart. Please feel free to copy these and paste them on your refrigerator door, bathroom mirror, bedside table—anywhere you can easily and frequently see them and draw from their support. Soon, I felt called to share these wellness principles through teaching a 12-week “Healing From Depression” class and support group. In creating the curriculum for the class, I took the self-care strategies I was employing and formulated them into a systematic, step-by-step sequence that could be learned and practiced over a 12-week period. In the year that I have taught the program to my groups, I have been privileged to see many healings and “miracles” in the lives of the group members. I am fortunate to have received permission from a number of my clients to include their recovery stories in sidebars that appear throughout the text. These stories show the power that is inherent in the simple healing tools that you will be learning.

Part Three addresses the need for intervention in the midst of crisis. Clinical depression is a serious matter. At any given moment, somewhere between 15 and 20 million Americans are suffering from depressive disorders, and about one in eight will develop the illness during their lifetimes. Suicide, the eighth leading cause of death in America, is largely caused by untreated depression. Thus, while Healing From Depression offers an excellent self-help program for managing the symptoms of depression and anxiety, it is not a substitute for professional treatment. If you or someone you care about is severely depressed or anxious and have symptoms that are interfering with your ability to function, please seek out professional help. Information on how to find good mental health resources is located in Appendix C as well as in Week 2 of the program, page 162.

 

Healing From Depression and Anxiety: Five Areas of Therapeutic Self-Care*

The Goal: To experience a better mood, free from depression and anxiety.

*Note: This program is meant to support, not replace, any medical treatment a person may be receiving.

 

Finally, although my personal narrative and the book's clinical material focus on healing from a depression, I believe that many of the book's principles can be applied to anyone who is undergoing a “dark night of the soul” experience—which I define as “relentless emotional or physical pain that appears to have no end.” It is my deepest wish that the lessons I learned from my suffering and the material contained in this book may give you or a loved one the hope and inspiration to fight on in your darkest hours.

—Douglas Bloch
Portland, Oregon