Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison

For those long nights of sleeplessness, this book is the good friend you need. The insights are presented in a calm and supportive way without medico-babble or the promises of instant cures nor a push towards medication. It needs to be read reflectively over and over again for true insight and is the most useful book on depression I have ever read.

Dorothy Rowe's book on depression is different and brilliant. It is the clearest and most insightful book that I have ever read. With a wealth of knowledge behind her on the history of psychiatry and psychology, Dorothy knows how to explain depression in consumable fashion, straight through the usual mystifying psychobabble and chemical imbalance theories. As a therapist, I am conscious of how many people Dorothy's book has helped. They come back with passages underlined, words that are full of wisdom and truly heal. She knows how people feel in the prison of depression and they begin to be allowed to be depressed and eventually make the choice to heal.

It was only from reading this book that I was able to understand my depressive state and believe me I had severe depression. Depression is not some chemicle imbalance. If I had of believed that then I would still be suffering from depression as all the anti-depressants that I had used not only didn't work but in some cases made me feel much worse since I suffered from side effects. What Dorothy Rowe wants people to understand is that there is a definant link between thoughts and emotions.Since I have read all of Dorothy's books I don't remember if it is from this particular book that I was able given the advice to free myself from depression, but I can tell you what it was. In one particular conversation that she had with a client called Margaret, she told Margaret to repeat to herself OUT LOUD "Margaret, Your're alright". Margaret followed Dorthy's advice and was cured of her depression. I decided to repeat this on myself, saying OUT LOUD my first name, then your're alright,every so often over a period of one or two weeks. What I experienced was amazing. I felt like a big black cloud literally rise from my entire body until it disappeared above my head.It was a truly amazing experience. I felt my body go kind if limp like a rag doll and that was it, that was the end of my depression. It took some time after to really fully recover, but that experience was the beginning of the end of my depression. What Dorothy tries to make people understand is that depression is a state of ABSOLUTE TERROR and that your're feelings affect your mind and your mind affects your're feelings.When you suffer from depression you are so full of guilt that you not only feel that you are evil you KNOW that you are evil. And you keep yourself in this state because it offers you safety. I urge everybody who suffers from depresion or who knows some-one who is suffering from depression to read her books.

Dorothy Rowe possesses a remarkable insight into the world of depression. She brings to the reader a wealth of experience upon which to draw consolation and reassurance. Depression is a condition that can be dealt with, no matter how difficult it may prove otherwise-and this is her remarkable venture into reaching those of us who might otherwise have given up. This book is a must read for anyone touched by depression. It may very well be the only book on depression you will ever need. Dorothy Rowe is it. Get this book!

I wish I have read this book several years earlier. Dr. Rowe's penetrating way of helping you understand and change your opinions about life is amazing. Her experience in helping those among us whom, when bad happens, choose to build and lock ourselves in a mental prison, is great help. This book is a must read when you or a friend seek help with such a terrible condition as that of depression --Aras Taha Geylani, Istanbul, Turkey.