One of the most prolific mental health authors has written a book published in 2020 that is about overcoming depression. The book's title is 30 Days 30 Ways to Overcome Depression and the author is Bev Aisbett.
You'd think it would be a helpful book based on the title. But no! It turns out that this book is full of misinformation, stigmatising framing and victim-blaming. I will list some of the quotes below, with the page numbers found:
- “Clearly, your FIRST choice was to BECOME DEPRESSED.” [Page 7]
- “Rushing to see depression as an illness is DISEMPOWERING. It can make you feel like a VICTIM.” … “In fact, go one step further and change the statement from ‘I have depression’ to ‘I have a tendency to feel depressed.’ Now think of ways you can DRIVE OVER that speed bump.” [Pages 50, 52]
- “You may not have realised this before but, more often than you realise, you have been lining up for what you ASKED FOR!” [Page 106]
- “IF YOU DROP THE SELF-PITY YOU ALSO DROP THE DEPRESSION. Be honest, now – if you were not LAMENTING your lot you would have nothing to feel DEPRESSED about, would you?” [Page 134]
- “WITHOUT JUDGING YOURSELF, recognise that you’re in CHILD MODE – especially when you are depressed.” [page 179]
- “Let’s be brutally HONEST, now. Deep down you think being depressed is sort of darkly INTERESTING, don’t you? There’s a certain ROMANCE to all that NOBLE SUFFERING, isn’t there?” [Page 184]
- “Conventional thinking says that you should never tell someone with depression to ‘Snap out of it.’ Well, WHY THE HELL NOT?" ... "And you can start heading in that direction by FAKING it until you MAKE it.” [page 185]
- “SMILE. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a FAKE or a REAL smile! Even PRETENDING can lift your mood.” [Page 188]
This book has almost put me into a depression relapse. The thing is, it appears on the first page of every bookstore when filtered for depression, and is widely available across public libraries in Victoria as well as across the state.
This is very dangerous and is potentially life-threatening. And I wish I didn't have to write this, as this is equivalent to Andrew Tate's take on depression in the 2016 tweet, in a published book, published in 2020.
#depression #mentalhealth #misinformation #victimblaming #victimblaminginmedia @psychotherapist @psychology @psychaitry #psychotherapy #counselling #books #stigma #psychology #mentalillness
![After I had written the poem the flight [from a bully] itself was changed, and with that my feelings towards it. A psychologist would say that this was because I had suppressed my knowledge of my cowardice, and that it could trouble me only so long as I suppressed it. That may be so, but what it was that made me stop suppressing it is another question. I think there must be a mind within our minds which cannot rest until it has worked out, even against our conscious will, the unresolved questions of our past (Edwin Muir, 1954, Autobiography)](https://pub-1146fd6c5b9443ce8a2adde617e7847d.r2.dev/images/status/e022ea9a-d54a-471c-b9af-85248744bd35.png "After I had written the poem the flight [from a bully] itself was changed, and with that my feelings towards it. A psychologist would say that this was because I had suppressed my knowledge of my cowardice, and that it could trouble me only so long as I suppressed it. That may be so, but what it was that made me stop suppressing it is another question. I think there must be a mind within our minds which cannot rest until it has worked out, even against our conscious will, the unresolved questions of our past (Edwin Muir, 1954, Autobiography)")
