Recovery from Depression Using the Narrative Approach: A Guide for Doctors, Complementary Therapists and Mental Health Professionals

Recovery from Depression Using the Narrative Approach explores people's experiences of depression, recovery and available treatments. The author explains how, by selecting a variety of 'narrative tools', such as talking therapies, yoga and complementary therapies, as well as conventional medical approaches, people can take control of their condition. By choosing more helpful narratives, they can gain a greater insight into depression, self-management and long-term recovery. Written with a range of professionals in mind, including doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, complementary therapists, community psychiatric nurses and talking therapists, this evidence-based book offers guidance on how to be an 'ally' in promoting patients' recovery.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements. Preface: About this Book. 1. Introduction. 2. Life Prior to a Diagnosis. 3. The Experience of Depression. 4. Recovering from Depression. 5. Medical Tools. 6. Non-Medical Recovery Tools. 7. Health Professionals as Recovery Allies. 8. Talking Therapies. 9. Summing It Up. Appendix: Participant Biographical Details. References. Recommended Reading. List of Boxes. List of Case Studies. Subject Index. Author Index.

About the Author :
Damien Ridge is a reader in Integrated Health at the University of Westminster, following positions as Senior Research Fellow at City University London and Senior Qualitative Researcher at Oxford University. He has been a specialist qualitative researcher for over 15 years, with expertise in understanding how people give meaning to recovering from mental health problems. He is widely published in leading scientific journals, including Social Science & Medicine and Sociology of Health & Illness. Damien lives in Brixton and is a regular meditation and yoga practitioner.

Review :
Urging professionals to act as recovery allies to their patients - listening out for the things they do not say, helping them to select the narratives that most resonate with the way they are feeling, and suggesting and helping assemble a selection of helpful tools - widening the focus from simply prescribing anti-depressants, to considering and encompassing the many other options and resources available, Recovery from Depression shows how offering patients a choice and the feeling of an active role can initiate and encourage continued recovery. Informative and easily understandable, Damien Ridge's books shows how recovery from depression is an ongoing process. Ridge, a reader in integrated health at the University of Westminster, explores the tools of recovery including medications such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors an antidepressants, before moving on to discuss non-medical recovery methods. I recommend this book for people experiencing depression and professionals working in the mental health field who wish to learn more about the role of recovery using the narrative approach. This is a hopeful book that offers a view that there is no one right way for people to deal depression, and that as professionals we can assist people to find their own ways, becoming their allies in recovery rather than experts who know best. This book will be useful for anyone on either side of the divide between the depressed person and his/her family, friends and professional helpers. A very timely book. Challenging the idea that depression can simply be treated with pharmaceuticals, this book explores avenues for self-management and enablement that allows individuals to cope with - and overcome - their depression from within their own resources... This book reminds us that, as with other chronic illnesses, there is much we can do to help ourselves. At last, an authoritative book about people who have been through depression and come out the other side. Ridge takes up the story where Karp (in Speaking of Sadness) left off. Starting within the debilitating experiences of depression, he bears witness to his respondents' journeys of discovery and reappraisal. He provides us - whether patients or professionals - with crucial new insights into the processes of recovery. Recovery is about progress, not perfection. Whilst "recovery" is used or felt to be "owned" by many in the mental health sector, it is a vital word that needs to be widely reclaimed by society. In this refreshing book, the author does this, showing how recovery is not "something" that happens to people, but is ongoing, being enabled and co-produced by people working together to nurture their innate abilities to rebuild and regain hope. In this book, recovery is shown to be practical, real, ongoing and achievable. We are all in recovery in one way or another, and we need to listen more to those with depression: stories from people with depression show how positive health care and social changes can be made.