What’s the best book about depression?
A kind reminder to keep in mind: The best book is a very individual thing. Different people have different opinions. If you get a recommendation, even if it’s from many people, it does not guarantee that you will end up having the same experience and opinion. You may avoid reading books that majority people didn’t like, but among the top 3-5 books on a particular topic, any of them could become your personal favorite. If you are here looking for recommendations, I will suggest you reading a book, but I will not claim, that it is the best book about depression for everyone. Let me explain a bit more.
If you ask, “what is the best wine/coffee/tea you have ever drank?”, then many people will give you many different answers for several reasons.
To come up with an answer to the question “what is the best book about depression” one has to read several of them. Many people giving recommendations may read just 3-5 books on a topic out of let’s say 50 available. And they give recommendations based on the few books they read.
A more representative answer would be for a question: “What is your favorite book out of the following list of 5-10 books?”. If everyone answering the question read all of the books from the list, then we can possibly get a winner. But note, that even in the case of one book receiving most votes, it does not mean, that for you it will be the same. That means, another book may be more suitable, more helpful, more touching for you than what the majority has voted for. Be open to reading more books not just one.
Good positive reviews are an indicator that a book is good, but not that it is the best book, there may be better books out there with much less reviews, with less publicity, which are actually better than some of the books released a few years ago having more reviews. When looking at popularity based on number of reviews on amazon it is not a reliable indicator: some books which have been released just recently may be better than other books released 5-10 years ago which have significantly more reviews.
When labeling books as best books, there are several things to consider and one of them is a more specific intent or need of the person reading a book, what kind of specific information one is looking for:
- Best book about depression for somebody who is helping others who suffer?
- Best book about depression for somebody who wants to find help for herself/himself?
- Best book about depression as a general introduction into the topic?
- Best book about depression focusing on alternative therapies?
- Best book about depression for somebody dealing with loss of loved ones, loneliness, postnatal depression…?
A person who is looking for alternative therapies to heal depression, by reading a book about just some general characteristics about depression, or targeted for people with suicidal inclinations and attempts, will not really like those books that much, even though they might be the best books on those narrowed down topics. Simply because this person is actually looking for alternative therapies in the first place, and perhaps due to a bad or inappropriate book description the person ended up reading a book, which is not the main area of their interest. Depression is a very broad topic. One book cannot cover everything related to the topic of depression; it would need to have several thousand pages perhaps.
What does “best” even mean? How do you measure best?
Out of 100 depressed people – they all read the same books about depression, and “I liked the book” is not what counts, but “the most amount of people healed completely” thanks to that book compared to other books. That could be a possible good enough way of assessing, which book was the best in terms of some measurable long-term results.
People are different, have different personalities. One book may contain highly valuable information (the most valuable from all books that person will read about depression), but if the style of writing is not to their liking, than they may not finish reading the book, may not read that one essential information that would have actually solved their problems/issues/challenges in life.
Additionally it happens often when people are reading a book they have a selective way of what catches their attention, what becomes interesting, inspiring, motivational. They may disregard that which would have been the most helpful information and instead focus on something, which is actually much less helpful for them.
You may have to read more than one book, until you have a better overview of information from several authors.
You may have to re-read some books.
Book about depression recommendation
My recommendation: Give the book “Quest for a Depression-free Life” a try.
Read the Table of Contents first. The author approaches the topic from a holistic point of view, including body-mind-spirit topics, and with an overview of many different alternative complementary therapies. Read it with an open mind, with no expectations, with childlike curiosity: download the book about depression for free. This might be the best book about depression for you. You may find inspiration and motivation in it.