Breaking the Patterns of Depression

You don't have to live with depression.

Everyone faces bad times and difficult situations. Why doesn't everyone get depressed? Are there specific skills that you can develop that will protect you from depression and even prevent future episodes? The answer is yes. You can break the patterns of depression with the new perspectives and skills contained here.

Dr. Yapko contradicts the widely held belief that depression is a disease best treated with medication or extensive psychotherapy. Successful and reliable treatments for depression have been developed, and they provide a legitimate basis for claiming that the majority of depression sufferers can be helped. In Breaking the Patterns of Depression, Dr. Yapko brings both twenty years of experience as a clinician and the most effective treatment methods--previously published only in professional circles--directly to the depression sufferer.

Depression is complex. The path to recovery can be created by learning to think realistically about depression and how it affects you and why, and by actively honing the skills to change the thoughts, feelings, and behavior that adversely affect you. This book isn't "emotional popcorn." It's a serious guide to becoming and remaining depression-free.

Have you ever felt so depressed that you had trouble concentrating on your job, talking with your family, even getting out of bed? Twenty to thirty million Americans suffer from some form of diagnosable depression, and their ranks are growing. Psychologist Michael D. Yapko explains that in order to find relief, more than the current episode of depression must be examined. In Breaking the Patterns of Depression, he presents skills that will help you understand and ultimately avert depression's recurring cycles. Focusing on future prevention as well as initial treatment, the book includes over one hundred activities to help you learn the skills necessary for becoming and remaining depression-free.

Breaking the Patterns of Depression begins by translating the clinical literature on psychotherapy and antidepressant medication into language you can use to enhance your understanding of depression and to personalize your cure. Using a conversational, anecdotal approach, Dr. Yapko encourages you to take an active and experiential approach to helping yourself. Special activity sections entitled "Learn by Doing" and "Shifting Perspectives" help you to develop the skills necessary to manage difficult experiences. In this way, you will learn how to solve problems effectively, anticipate the likely consequences of your actions, think and act in a direct and goal-oriented fashion, balance different areas of your life, and use self-knowledge to stay out of hurtful situations.

Realistic and enormously helpful, Breaking the Patterns of Depressionallows you to recognize your triggers for depression and, best of all, to clarify what you can do about them. With this knowledge in hand, you can control your depression rather than having your depression control you.

Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D. is the author of seven previous books on brief, directive psychotherapy. He is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Solana Beach, California, and is known nationally and internationally for his work on treating depression with active, brief therapy methods. Acknowledging his expertise, the Encyclopaedia Britannica commissioned Dr. Yapko to write sections on depression, clinical hypnosis, and the repressed memory controversy for their medical and health annuals. Dr. Yapko and his wife, Diane, enjoy traveling and hiking in their spare time.