Use Your Depression To Jump-Start Your Life
 

There are hundreds of books that will try to help you “overcome” or “put an end to” depression. But what if the goal is to use your depression as a way to jump start your life? Your depression symptoms may be a realistic signal that something in your life needs to change. Learning to understand and interpret this signal is much more important than finding out how to simply make it go away. The real impact of depression is that it leads you into a cycle of avoiding problems that only makes the situation worse. This workbook uses techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to offer a new approach to depression—one that will help you live a productive life by accepting your feelings instead of fruitlessly trying to avoid them.

The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Depression will show you, step-by-step, how to stop this cycle, feel more energized, and involve yourself in pleasurable and fulfilling activities that will help you move through, rather than avoid, aspects of your life that are depressing you. Use the techniques in this book to evaluate your own depression experiences, how they fit into your life and create a personalized treatment plan. You’ll enrich your total life experience by focusing your energy not on fighting depression, but on living the life you want.

"Grounded in ancient wisdom and the newest scientific evidence, this book... shows the pathways into and out of depression."

-Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology and
Wellcome Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford

Kirk D. Strosahl, Ph.D., is co-founder of acceptance and commitment therapy and an internationally known expert on managing depression and suicidal behavior. Strosahl has practiced as a psychologist for more than twenty-six years, working with depressed patients in both mental health and primary care settings. . He is coauthor of several books, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change. Strosahl currently lives in and operates vineyard in central Washington.

Patricia J. Robinson, Ph.D., has devoted her career to developing, implementing, evaluating, and refining treatments for depression in settings where most people seek help—schools and primary care clinics. She has a passion for helping people of all ages and life circumstances achieve optimal health. She is the author of Living Life Well: New Strategies for Hard Times, a popular self help program for depressed primary care patients. She resides and works in central Washington.