Description
What is Depression?
Hope in Darkness, Volume 1
26 pages. 9 exercises.
Often those suffering from a depressive episode have a hard time explaining the experience to others. Doctors, teachers, parents, coworkers, and friends all want to understand and help, but those affected can’t articulate what they’re feeling. Without description and communication, it’s hard to ask for help and even more difficult to offer it.
This book tries to help you answer questions like:
- What does depression feel like?
- Why are you still tired?
- How come you can’t just get out of bed?
- What is it like to live with depression?
- How does it impact the lives of those who suffer?
For those who love someone suffering, sometimes the feeling you struggle with most is helplessness. Your friend or child is over there, suffering, and you’re over here, feeling like nothing you do makes a difference. While you can’t fix anyone else’s mental health, just understanding can mean we feel less alone.
The first step in solving any problem is to describe it. That is what this booklet attempts to do: to define the problem of depression in simple, accessible terms. Using a variety of analogies, author Courtney Sloan offers a range of ways for people to talk about what they’re going through.
This booklet is written to be understandable and helpful to everyone 10-years-old or older, whether you suffer yourself or just know someone who does.
Lynda –
Courtney is open, honest, and vulnerable about her dark journey with depression. I found the booklet helpful in understanding depression from the viewpoint of the sufferer. This small publication will not give some panacea for depression but it will offer the reader some tools and insights that the author has found helpful. I recommend this publication to anyone wanting to understand the depression that someone they know is experiencing and anyone that is suffering with depression and wants help and hope.