Book Review.

Okay, so. ;) For my communications class we have to do this whoppin' big group project. Each group was to come up with a topic on which to find a book, read about it, and then prepare a speech about how it has to do with communication and then give it to the class. I'm not sure why, but one of my group members, upon getting together, immediately suggested the topic of Depression. My initial thought was: Depression!? Are you kidding? I'm gonna end up being depressed by the time this is over! ...At first it was hard to get use to the idea, but as time went on and I told myself that there was just no getting around this and things got better.

I am actually now excited about the topic. That night I surfed the internet trying to find a good book on which to read about. Since this is BYUI and we have the sense of spirituality in class I thought it would be appropriate to find a book about depression that was perhaps written by a member of the Church or that had some spiritual essence to it. Well, once I decided what it was I want the book just sort of appeared. I found it on amazon (my all-time-favorite book-buying site!), bought it and read it.

Once the books were read we were to -as a side assignment -write a book review on it (in the format of a New York Times Book Review -which isn't as easy as it was in second grade). And as of yet, I do not know what score I got, but that shouldn't matter too much. At least, I hope it doesn't. If it's an F, I'll tell you and that way you wont take what I have to say into account.

Well, here is my book review. I know this review might be long and boring, but I really do recommend this book to anyone who knows of someone who has depression or who has it themselves. It is an excellent read!

My Review:

Curled on the floor in a corner of her bedroom, sat a thirty-seven year old woman. She had noticed a change in her that left her feeling trapped. From the corner she tried to escape the everyday pressures of life, searching for a place of quiet inside herself that would allow her to stop thinking or responding, telling herself the whole time: “I can’t do this.” Two years later she was diagnosed with having major depression. This woman’s name is Meghan Decker. Meghan teamed up with a woman by the name of Betsy Chatlin and wrote the book Reaching For Hope with the desire that it would inspire women, such as herself, who suffer from depression to seek out the help they need to gain hope that depression is not incurable.

Betsy Chatlin received her degree at Brigham Young University and has since worked in private practice, family counseling, LDS Family Services, and mental health and social services. She is currently licensed to practice as a clinical social worker in three different states: Michigan, Utah, and Virginia. Betsy Chatlin specializes in helping women who are suffering from depression and has dealt with hundreds of different cases. Meghan Decker also received her degree from Brigham Young University and now lives in Portage, Michigan.

Meghan, using her own experiences, describes depression as a descent into prison, an open chest wound, the incarceration of a body seemingly wrenched from its spirit, an isolation chamber opposite of all that is beautiful and good, one’s own personal Gethsemane. In Reaching for Hope we are taught the definition of depression as well as its characteristics, symptoms, triggers, and most importantly how one can recover from this awful abyss of pain.

Reaching for Hope offers much needed information and support for those who suffer from depression as well as for those who associate with people who have depression. Written from a uniquely LDS point of view, this informative and inspirational book offers important clinical information for dealing with the disease, the symptoms that come with it, and suggestions for finding ways to heal.

Depression is a brain illness. The despair of depression is often unfathomable to those who have not experienced it. Depression isolates us from one another, and the severity of the pain is very different from the usual emotion of sadness. In a recent study cited in U.S. News and World Report, the World Health Organization ranked depression as the number one health problem for women and projects that by the year 2020 it will become the number two health problem (the first being heart disease) for people in general.

In this book, Decker and Chatlin list off and describe many different ways that this brain-illness of depression can be helped. Talk Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, and finding a personal therapist can each help with treating depression. This book testifies that communication, whether it is personal meditation within one’s self or “healthy talk” with a therapist, it is the key to overcoming depression.

“Talk therapy” is a powerful tool used to derail depressive thinking. Cognitive distortions, self-loathing, negative self-talk, and negative perceptions may all be confronted, managed, and even done away with through the power of right thinking and self-talk. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is a psychotherapeutic approach that aims to influence dysfunctional emotions, behaviors and cognitions through a goal-oriented, system procedure. Finding a personal therapist, according to Chatlin, is one of the best things to do when it comes to the healing process of depression.

As a therapist, Chatlin has had many experiences in dealing with women who have found it best to simply lay everything out on the table. Chatlin puts it this way: “These women spew their pain out as if vomiting the words, sensing that this verbal cleansing might give them relief. They are right: it does.” This is why “talk therapy” is so beneficial. People intuitively know what will help them.

Reaching for Hope is filled with numerous case studies where real women have made it through the long hard sufferings of depression. Depression is not an easy thing. Depression is something that has to be worked at. Both Chaltin and Decker believe that one of the best ways to work through the ugliness of depression is to communicate. One client said it best as she gave her personal account of taking those first steps in recovering from depression: “I still have my work cut out for me. I know I have a long way to go yet, but because I’m not going it alone anymore; I know I’ll be able to make it.”