Reddit mentions of The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

I think Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) may be helpful. It combines mindfulness meditation with more traditional therapy and there is research behind its effectiveness for depression.

this looks like a good introductory book for the technique, though I've never read it (always hear good things about John Kabat-Zinn though).

It would be helpful to know more about her current therapy; there are many treatments for depression, and unfortunately therapists don't always practice therapies currently supported by the scientific evidence (proper psychologists tend to be better, but not always). You might want to do some research into the type of treatment she's getting and what her psychologist specializes in.

If she is recieving scientifically valid therapy, I would suggest sticking with it and adding mindfulness meditation / self- MBCT and seeing if that helps. My favorite introduction to mindfulness meditation is mindfulness in plain english (free book online), but there are other resources in the sidebar.

If she wants to try a different type of therapy/therapist, I would say look for one that specializes in MBCT (if she's interested in mindfulness).

I would suggest she stick with a therapist as well as mindfulness practice though; you say therapy never helped her long term before, but there is some research indicating that mindfulness helps prevent depression relapse (as well as its usefulness as a treatment in and of itself), so if she received short term benefit from therapy in the past, mindfulness might help her keep the benefits this time around.

Good luck! I could probably write pages about the different practices that help depression; if you want to read about some more, this post I wrote in /r/leaves might be useful (I did write it for marijuana withdrawal, but it occured to me after that every technique I covered was also useful for depression). If you have any questions about anything I wrote, feel free to ask!

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: http://smile.amazon.com/Mindful-Way-through-Depression-Unhappiness-ebook/dp/B007T9FZRS/ref=sr_1_1


|Country|Link|Charity Links|
|:-----------|:------------|:------------|
|USA|amazon.com|EFF|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|Macmillan|
|Spain|amazon.es||
|Mexico|amazon.com.mx||
|France|amazon.fr||
|Germany|amazon.de||
|Japan|amazon.co.jp||
|Canada|amazon.ca||
|Australia|amazon.com.au||
|Italy|amazon.it||




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I've been there - it took me a long time, a total mental breakdown, and a short stay in a psychiatric hospital for me to find the right meds and the right ways to treat my depression. Talk to your doctor about the side-effects, and ask him or her to try a new mix. I know it sounds cliche, and everyone recommends it, but definitely exercise - it really helps. Also, it sounds like hokey pseudoscience, but you should really try mindfulness meditation. I picked it up when I was in the hospital, and it has changed the way I lived my life, very much for the better, and was definitely one of the things that helped bring me out of that state. If you're interested, you should take a look at a book called The Mindful Way Through Depression.

And, through all of this, just remember that there are people in your life who love you, and want you to get through this - at very least, that's what all of us here want. Keep fighting, keep trying, and know that all of us here at TrollY love you and have your back.

I found this book helpful for anxiety: http://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Way-through-Depression-ebook/dp/B007T9FZRS/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370001154&sr=1-5&keywords=jon+kabat+zinn

Something to think about if your meds aren't totally working.

Not Taoist, but there is MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive therapy). I have PTSD and Depression. I took part in a 16 week study with the VA where we learned MBCT, it really helped me. I'm currently reading "Mindful way through depression" discovering that it's pretty much the same thing. Now I'm combining the two (MBCT and Taoism) to help me with lingering depression. They compliment each other pretty well. Of course I'm still on meds, which are of minimal help, but if I put the three together, and I can stick to the lessons, I really have some inner peace. Of course I often stray and loose direction. But it's like weightlifting, it has to be strengthened over time.

http://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Way-through-Depression-Unhappiness-ebook/dp/B007T9FZRS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397312183&sr=8-1&keywords=mindful+way+through+depression