Are you going through a tough time, and feeling depressed? worry not! because I am here to help you overcome depression, here are the top 5 books to read when depressed.
Will reading books help me overcome depression?
Of course, reading books will heal your depression, here is why it works when you are depressed?
- You feel alone.
- You keep on thinking about your past.
- Your view of this life becomes narrow.
The first reason is when you read books, you don’t feel alone anymore. you realize that someone is there who has already faced these situations, once they also had the same feelings.
Secondly, when you read books, you don’t focus on things that cause depression to you. instead, you see the positive angle of your life. Remember,
Your past does not equal your future – Tony Robbins
And the last thing is, you become broad-minded. you understand that this is not the end, you gain knowledge, you know about something new that you never heard before.
When you read books, you understand that it’s not magic, things take time. we learn to handle the worst situation with patience.
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My experience with books
I have read books on self-development, and they are really helpful. but I never went through a book on depression or grief! so why am I still recommending to read these books? when I don’t have any experience with them.
well, it’s simple! because if reading books can help me develop my personality, so why they wouldn’t help you in healing depression?
When I read the atomic habits of James clear and think and grow rich by Napoleon hill, they changed my life.
I knew that problem was not outside, it was inside me, I have to change myself. before this I was daydreaming about money and fame, I thought that rich people become rich overnight, but after reading these books my perception completely changed.
That’s why I am so confident to share these books with you because books help us in every area of life.
read also: how to overcome depression naturally
5 books to read when depressed
here is the list of the top 9 books to read when depressed.
1) Back to life
This book is written especially for those, who have lost their loved ones.
Jannie wright is the author of the book, and she is a certified grief counselor.
Summary of back to life
Depression is a complete process in itself. the author explains the whole process in this book.
This is a great book to read when depressed,because it covers really good details.
she says there are 3 stages of grief. Early, middle, and The End.
In the early stages, it’s so hard for us to believe in what’s happened. we can’t even believe that our loved one has left us. the rage inside us wants to explode, and we can’t control our emotions.
In the middle stage, we miss our dear ones, their memories don’t let us enjoy any moment of life.
At this moment, we feel so much alone, we feel like there is no one to care for us, and we don’t share our feelings with someone. Especially we feel more isolated in big events such as Christmas.
In The End, we feel tired of grieving, we don’t want to remain the same.
now is the time, when we want to start a new life, we form new relationships and new activities.
This is a complete process of how grief works, the author has explained how to act according to each stage. there are physiological exercises which you can try and surely will benefit you.
There are a lot of practices which you can apply daily so that each day has something meaningful for you.
During depression time you will feel bad but, to what extent? I mean there is a limit! you can’t be normal after you have crossed the limit, so you will understand yourself better if your depression is normal or not.
NOTE: There is money-back guarantee, if you don’t like the book you will get money within 8 weeks.
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS BOOK
2) The happiness trap
When you are depressed, what you do? you keep on fighting with it, you try to avoid negative feelings as much as you can do.
That’s where your depression get’s worse. you are trying to say” get away from me” to negative thoughts, but they don’t really work.
Dr. Russ Haris uses A.c.t techniques in this book, which is to accept your bad feelings the way they are, instead of feeling guilty of them.
Running away from the problem does not remove it from your life, so don’t pull away the bad feelings instead just accept them.
Why you should read this book?
This is a good book to read when depressed, because dr Russ Hariss has given some practical and small steps that you can take to relieve your depression.
in this book, you will learn three techniques.
Defusion technique, here you will have a better focus on your mind, you will catch negative thoughts easily when they arrive in your mind.
Turn off the struggle switch, this is the most important, you will not get stuck in the trap of negative thoughts.
Identify your core values, you will learn to identify your core values, and you will take small steps that are according to your core values.
So this is what you are going to learn in this book, there are 500k copies sold of this book, and 75% of the people gave a 5-star review, which is impressive.
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS BOOK
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3) The depression cure
Dr. Stephen S.ilardi researched depression, and he found out something that works for everyone. in his words,
We werer never desgined for the sedentary, indoor, socially isolated, fast-food-laden, sleep deprived, frenzied pace of modern life.
He was inspired by Papua new guinea people, called calculi. Because they were happy and less depressed as compared to Americans.
He found out, that calculi people live hard lives, they struggle each day, on an average they work physically 4 hours a day. so from there, he came up with the solutions to overcome depression.
What’s in this book?
Dr. Stephen has focused on 4 main things,
- Exercise
- Sleep
- Food
- Socialization
He talks about exercise, how it’s beneficial to our health, and how can it change our lives.he kept exercise as the number one thing to keep depression away.
There are two chemicals in our mind, which is released when we feel happy! dopamine, serotonin. when we do exercise our body releases these chemicals and we feel happy.
his views about exercise are,
If we put the benifis of exercise in a pill, it will become the best pill ever, and will be best selling pill in the world.
food can heal our depression, studies have proved that omega 3 can reduce depression.
He pointed fast food, as they have no omega 3s, and of course, they produce depression. eating the right kind of food will make your mood better.
Socialization plays a big role in curing depression. the reason we are more depressed then our ancestors is facetime over screen time.
We have traded face time with the screen time, we are not socially active, we don’t spend time with our loved ones.
So that’ what he says in his books, and of course this is just an overview, there is detailed explaination of everything.
This is another good book to read when depressed,because you will get the real-life solutions to overcome depression.
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS BOOK
LISTEN TO FREE AUDIO BOOK/ 30 DAYS TRIAL
4) Feeling Good
Dr. Burns is the author of feeling good, he talks about the natural ways to cure depression.
This book is currently in the top five selling books and has sold 5m copies world Wide.
Sometimes you are not really depressed, but just because you think you are depressed, you accept it. so in this book first of all you will have to identify if you are really depressed.
To understand your depression, you will have to go through a test, which consists of some questions, you will have to answer, each question has a score.
Based on your score, you will understand the level of depression you have, or maybe you are not depressed even.
What’s in the book?
Dr. Burns uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy(CBT) techniques in this book. which is to better understand your negative thoughts, and convert them into positive thoughts.
He believes that the only thing which is responsible for our depression is our thoughts. because we believe what we think.
We are nothing but our thoughts, our thoughts become our reality, even if they are not real.
The Cognitive Distortions
Cognitive Distortions the ways, our mind compels us to believe in something, which may not be real.
Dr. Burns describes these cognitive distortions in his book, and how they influence our life, and make us depressed. here I have explained some of the cognitive distortions mentioned in his book.
All or nothing thinking, in this kind mindset you exaggerate the negative events. you think either I am good at something or I will never be good at this thing.
For example, if you wanted to be a singer, you applied for singing, and they didn’t select you, so you start to believe that I will never be able to be a good singer.
Mental filtering, it means pointing out negative things in everything.
For example, if you read this book and find it helpful, but you still point out something which you think is not good. like it took so much of my time, the price is a little high!
You don’t think about what you have learned and what was good about it. but instead, your thinking just went to the negative side.
Disqualifying positive thoughts, you never accept positive thoughts about yourself.
If by chance a positive thought clicks your mind, you try to avoid it. this ruins your self-esteem, and you don’t even like yourself anymore.
You believe more in negative things about you, if someone just told you anything negative, you don’t forget it. you accept that it’s true.
there are a lot of cognitive distortions, but I have mentioned a few only.
Solutions
Step 1, you need to get control of your mind, by catching all of the negative thoughts that you get.
so when you catch your thoughts, don’t allow them to revolve around your mind, and make you feel bad.
Step 2, understand how you are twisting your thoughts, what meaning are you associating with these thoughts?
most of the time you will get negative comments about your thoughts.
Step 3, replace these thoughts with new ones.
for example, if you feel alone, and think no one cares about you.
You can replace this thought with, the people who love you, for example,
- My mom loves me.
- My best friend(Sarah) likes me.
- Our family supports me.
The author says you should then read these lines each day, it will help you build positive thinking habits.
So that’s the way to cure depression with Cognitive Behavioral therapy, and it has been proven to overcome depression.
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS BOOK
LISTEN TO FREE AUDIO BOOK/ 30 DAYS TRIAL
5) The lost connections
The lost connection is written by Johann Hari, this is one of the evolutionary books on depression.
Background
When Johann Hari was at the age of 18, he took his first medical help for depression. ( took drugs)
The doctor would tell him, that depression is the cause of an imbalance of chemicals in our mind. (so-called serotonin), but he couldn’t believe it.
He thought if its’ the cause, then medication should help everyone, but in fact, 60% or more people are not happy with taking these medications.
so then he started his research and found 9 reasons for depression.
What’s in the book?
Johann Hari believes, that there are 9 reasons people get depressed.
Disconnection from meaningful Work
We all want to feel important, we want to be valued with our work.
So if you are doing a job, where you don’t find true meaning, you have no control over your job, chances are you will be depressed.
Either you don’t like your job, or you are in a workplace where you don’t have control of your decisions but do work only. then you won’t find true meaning in your job.
Disconnection from people
The author says, that idea of individualism has spread loneliness, people are alone, and that’s causing depression.
He says, if you feel alone, it causes so much stress as if someone punches on the face.
Disconnection from meaning full values
Extrinsic motivation causes depression and advertising is responsible for this.
For example, lots of people buy iPhone X, Does it contribute to there happiness? no, it’s because they want to be cool, they want to show the world I have something.
We don’t buy or do something, we do it just because we want to impress this world.
Childhood trauma
The more traumatic your childhood was, the more you will be depressed.
Dr. Felitti proved in his research, he studies 17000 people, and from the results, he found that childhood trauma can lead to depression.
The cure is to let it go and be comfortable for what happened in the past.
Some of the other reasons are fear of a secure future, status and respect, and little of brain chemicals.
There is detail about every problem in its solution in the book, The lost Connections. and none of these require medical support.
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS BOOK
LISTEN TO FREE AUDIO BOOK/ 30 DAYS TRIAL
Conclusion
There are different stages of depression, low, normal, high.
If you have a high level of Depression, you definitely should consult your doctor. but in other cases, you can take tour of books.
These are the top 5 books to read when depressed, and they are defiantly worth reading.
I did a lot of research on depression, and I came to one conclusion, depression is a process, and to overcome it, it takes time.
Plus it can be treated naturally, you don’t necessarily need a doctor, if it’s in the normal range, you can cure it yourself.
So that’s my opinion as to what I know!
Which book do you think I am missing? tell me in the comment section.