Depression Is Contagious: How the Most Common Mood Disorder Is Spreading Around the World and How to Stop It

Depression is more of a social problem than a medical illness, reveals expert psychologist Dr. Michael Yapko, whose revolutionary new approach—based on the latest research—treats depression with positive social relationships, not drugs.

Depression is now the world’s most common mood disorder, and is spreading like a viral contagion. You can’t catch depression in the same way you catch a cold, but the latest research in neuroscience, social psychology, epidemiology, and genetics provides overwhelming support that moods spread through social conditions. Our social lives directly shape our brain chemistry and powerfully affect the way we think and feel; our brains change with positive life experiences and can change as much with social circumstances as with medication. Drugs may address some of depression’s symptoms, but they cannot change the social factors that cause and perpetuate it. Indeed, Dr. Yapko argues convincingly, by treating a social condition as though it’s a disease, the problems will spread rather than diminish.

In Depression Is Contagious, Dr. Yapko identifies the patterns often seen in modern relationships that lead to depression and provides practical exercises that will help readers develop the skills and insights they need to forge stronger, healthier social connections. This practical, definitive book provides an empowering prescription for hope and healing through people, not pills.

Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D. , is a clinical psychologist and internationally recognized expert who lectures widely on depression, psychotherapy, and clinical hypnosis. He is the author of ten books, including Breaking the Patterns of Depression, Hand-Me-Down Blues, and Suggestions of Abuse. He lives with his wife, Diane, in Fallbrook, California.