Tell Depression To #@%! Off

By Marcus Freestone

Living with depression can be a real struggle, a battle against fear, confusion, anger, self-doubt, numbness, shame and guilt. This short, practical book examines what depression is and tells you how you can fight back and gain control of your thinking and emotions. Understanding your depression is the first step towards recovery, so this book guides you through the minefield of psychological and social causes and illustrates the patterns that lead to low self-esteem, incapacitating sadness, resentment and all the other day-to-day symptoms of depression. If you suffer from depression then you know the physical and emotional toll it takes on you but don't despair, help is at hand. This book is based on my personal experience of having to come up with my own methods of combating depression because medical intervention did nothing for me. You don't need Prozac to lift your mood: this book contains tips anyone can use and none of then will cost you a single penny. Discover that going for a short walk has a better antidepressant effect on your brain than any medication, and many other pieces of practical advice to help you regain control of your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marcus Freestone
• Release date: May 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311421340

Marcus Freestone

My main work is the T14 series of thrillers about a futuristic, high tech counter terrorism agency headed by a man with a computer implant in his brain. The first book "The Memory Man" is permanently free in e-book. I also have a series of novellas on the subject of mental health and psychology. My most popular book is "Positive Thinking And The Meaning Of Life" which has had 200,000 downloads. It deals with psychology, philosophy, depression, anxiety, mental health in general and the human condition.I have also released more than 50 albums, ranging from metal and rock to jazz and ambient/electronica. And last but not first I also produce the "Positive Thinking And The Meaning Of Life" podcast and "The Midnight Insomnia Podcast", a comedy show with ambient music and abstract visual images.

Book preview

TELL DEPRESSION TO

#@%! OFF

by

MARCUS FREESTONE

ALL MATERIAL © COPYRIGHT MARCUS FREESTONE 2016

ISBN 9781311421340

Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

ALSO AVAILABLE BY MARCUS FREESTONE FROM SMASHWORDS:

The Least Resistance

The Memory Man: T14 Book 1

Random Target: T14 Book 2

Just Murder: T14 Book 3

Two Serial Killers, A Wedding And A Funeral: T14 Book 4

Never Kidnap a Serial Killer: T14 Book 5

My Entire Life

Positive Thinking and The Meaning of Life

Ethelbert's Sunday Morning

What To Do If Trapped In A Lift With A Dentist

101 Ways To Happiness

WHAT IS DEPRESSION?

CAUSES OF DEPRESSION

COPING STRATEGIES FOR COMBATTING DEPRESSION

WHAT IS DEPRESSION?

Depression is a much misused word. People often use it to mean feeling a bit fed up, and therefore conclude that everyone else who is suffering from depression is also merely feeling a bit fed up. This is part of a much wider problem of ignorance about and prejudice towards mental illness in general. Some people still think mental illness is all about frenzied stabbing attacks or overtly bizarre behaviour, and if you're not doing that then there's obviously nothing wrong with you. Only a tiny fraction of one percent of people with a mental illness ever hurt anyone except themselves, but of course that is never going to be a news story: Today several people were murdered by people with no history of mental illness. Indeed, the day after writing this opening paragraph I heard a news item on the radio about a schizophrenic man who had stabbed somebody to death. I braced myself for the inevitable and, within thirty seconds, it had dutifully been described as a frenzied attack (despite another witness saying he looked calm throughout: which one is it?). The whole tone of the piece, of course, was that this man's schizophrenia was the cause of the attack and that, sooner or later, everyone with schizophrenia is going to snap and stab somebody in a frenzied attack.

It isn't only the general public who don't know enough about depression. In the UK, doctors spend seven years training to become a General Practitioner, yet the total time they spend studying depression is a staggering fifteen minutes. Considering the percentage of their patients who will have some kind of underlying depression causing their physical symptoms, and the enormous cost to the NHS, society and the lives of the patients and their families and friends, I find this an unbelievable and appalling statistic. However, as bad as things may be now, they were definitely much worse in the past.

How we view the world is a cultural phenomena conditioned by the prevalent views of the day. In the middle ages, anyone hearing voices was judged to be possessed by demons or evil spirits and would have some appalling physical ritual inflicted on them, often ending in death. In the twenty first century, people who hear voices are judged to be suffering from a symptom of mental illness. In some people with schizophrenia there is a fault in the auditory canal which can make their own internal thoughts sound as if they are being whispered in their ear by an invisible entity with a different voice to their own. Sustained experience of this would obviously be very distressing and disorientating, especially if the person was not aware of the physiological origins of the phenomena. Talking to yourself in public has long been seen as a sign of madness when in fact there is nothing unusual about giving voice to your