What if depression were a blessing as well as a curse? This is a book about how depression can have benefits as well as costs, and how to reap those benefits while making yourself feel better—better, in fact, than ever before.

Semi-finalist, the BookLife Prize 2021

You have, in some sense, embarked on the mythical hero’s journey. Despite being ill-fated, despite starting out as a victim or underdog, the hero is able to rise up to life and experience it in its fullness, rather than merely suffer or survive it and occasionally drink its dregs like so many of us do.

In myth, the hero has to travel through hell, or deep into the forest or labyrinth, before slaying the monster and re-emerging as a hero.

If your depression is the journey through the Inferno, then let this book be your guiding Virgil.

If your depression is the descent into the Cretan labyrinth, then let this book be Ariadne’s ball of red thread.

About the author

Dr Neel Burton is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and wine-lover who lives and teaches in Oxford, England. He is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College in the University of Oxford, and the recipient of the Society of Authors’ Richard Asher Prize, the British Medical Association’s Young Authors’ Award, the Medical Journalists’ Association Open Book Award, and a Best in the World Gourmand Award. His work has featured in the likes of Aeon, The Spectator, and The Times, and been translated into several languages.

◆ Grab your copy now for a new and powerful way of looking at depression.

Contents

Part I: Understanding depression

1. What is depression?

2. What does depression feel like?

3. How bad can things get?

4. What is psychosis?

5. Who suffers from depression?

6. What causes depression?

7. How is depression diagnosed?

8. Talking treatments

9. Antidepressant drugs

10. Electroconvulsive therapy

11. A philosophy of depression

Part II: Modular self-help

12. The magic ring that lifts depression

13. Correcting thinking errors

14. Positive illusions vs depressive realism

15. Managing stress

16. Managing anxiety

17. A philosophical cure for depression

18. Facing up to death

19. Facing up to life

20. The happiness trap

21. The philosophy of happiness

22. Aristotle on eudaimonia

23. Coping with bad news

24. Coping with boredom

25. Returning to the world

26. The Buddhist angle

27. Cultivating gratitude

28. Chicken soup for the soul

29. Mastering sleep

30. Releasing endorphins

31. The magic of music

32. Coping with psychotic symptoms

33. Coming off alcohol and drugs

34. Fighting thoughts of self-harm

35. Fighting suicidal thoughts

36. The philosophy of suicide

37. Building relationships

38. The 7 types of love

39. Dealing with insults and put-downs

40. Building self-esteem