This is Your Brain on Depression: Creating Your Path To Getting Better

I started reading Harper’s more popular book, “Un**** Your Brain,” a few weeks ago. I’m really enjoying it so far. When I noticed that she had several other short books on mental illness, I picked this one up as well.It’s a quick read / listen, but that doesn’t take away from its power. It gets to the root of depression quickly and effectively and makes you feel like you’re not alone nor crazy. In this one, Harper’s trademark style is on full display — swears, jokes, and the like.Personally, I enjoy her somewhat explicit style; I think it provides comedic relief and solidarity amidst some difficult and heavy subject matters.This one, structurally, reminded me of “F*** Anxiety” by Robert Duff in the sense that it’s a very good introduction to a specific mental illness. Sure, it’s not the entire picture of said illness, but it’s still quite effective and eye-opening.I’d recommend this one for sure.-Brian SachettaAuthor of “Get Out of Your Head: A Toolkit for Living with and Overcoming Anxiety”

Good info for sure. Skip this book and read “how to unf**k your brain” From the same author for the fuller picture. It includes all the content of this book and a bunch of other stuff that’s super relevant to depression.

I will state that I'm a therapist who bought this book in the hopes of recommending it to clients who would benefit from reading something less dry to learn about their illnesses or those of family members. The fact that it has profanity sprinkled through it wasn't a problem as I knew that was the case from other reviews before I ordered it. I also would be sure this wasn't an issue for any client who I loaned it to.The main problem is that the book is all over the place in terms of tone and language. It shifts back and forth between jargon and clinical descriptions and profanity and colloquial language. I get the feeling after reading it that the writers wrote the whole book in their clinical speak then went back and edited in some language that they felt lay readers would relate to. The result is a book that has good content in general and is fairly compact and concise, but doesn't really "fit" any particular audience very well at all. It's too technical/clinical sounding for lay readers and has too much distracting nonsense writing for someone who is more serious about the topic.The concept of this book was a good one, but I feel like the writers were not writing in their natural tone of voice or particularly understanding of the audience they were trying to reach (presumably one that finds swearing and dumbing down language necessary to understand the sophisticated mechanisms of depression and depression-related illnesses). In fact, I think the dramatic tonal shifts are incredibly jarring and slightly patronizing. On the bright side, it does have a good appendix with some resources and a list of things you can do to help deal with depression. However, the "translations" of these activities from plain, understandable language to profanity-laden explanations is silly and unnecessary.

It does not matter if one suffers form depression or knows someone else who suffers form depression. Author of the book, faith harper is clinical psychologist who uses very colorful language to explain this mental illness. I really enjoyed the fact that she explains depression is simple terms that anyone can understand. Book contains information on what is the most current medication used by medical establishment to treat depression. What are the naturopathic way to address the depression. She lists herbs and other natural remedies. She also lists different modalities that help with addressing the depression. The most interesting one is about the anxiety blanket which I just recently bought. Inver heard of them before, but when I saw one on sale I bough it right away. I also like the fact that Ms. Harper is open to energy healing such as Reiki and other modalities.Book can be read in an hour and used as a reference. It can also be shared with other family members who just either don't get it that depression is real or do not understand how it feels to be clinically depressed. It is intended for open minded audiences who will not disregard advice to eat healthy, exercise, and also resort to acupuncture, meditation, Reiki and other modalities not always recognized by traditional medical establishment.Author has many more books on other topics related to mental illnesses and ailments in the modern world. As far as I ma concerns, Faith Harper should be a household name when it comes picking up the quick and easy reading books that will explain in plain language the challenges of certain conditions.