Creating Optimism: A Proven Seven-step Program for Overcoming Depression (Paperback)

There is some looking at things that happen to young people that are likely to lead to problems later on. This may sound like going over a lot of old ground that is not so fashionable these days, but I like their approach a lot.

Early on in the book the authors often look from the point of view that our ancestors had a lot less mental health problems. (Based largely on studying “modern” tribes of hunter-gatherers to see how those people interact with each other). Using this view point it can be shown that so many mental health problems stem from how society these days is formed of tiny family units (sometimes only 1 family member?) living almost in isolation from the rest of the “tribe”. For me this idea is put across in a very convincing way. They go on to suggest that most of us would benefit from relating to a wider group of people and effectively forming our own larger “tribe” around us. In doing so we would regain the confidence and support our ancestors would have had from the other tribe members.

The book is surprisingly (for a 7 step plan) split into 3 sections. The first section contains the introductory part and steps 1 and 2. The third section contains steps 4, 5, 6 and 7. Whilst the middle section is taken up entirely by step 3. This seems an odd lay out until you realize that perhaps everything hinges on step 3.

Step 1: Identify and Defeat the Inner Saboteur
The idea that part of me wanted me to keep on failing was an idea that until recently I could not accept. This section explains how it comes to be true for just about everyone. Because our minds are largely “programmed” by events as we grow up and much of what happens can be along the lines of not succeeding, we all are likely to have part of us that actually encourages us to fail. Recognizing this does not come naturally and this is where this section of the book helps a lot.

Step 2: Reconnect to Your Body
“Depression is an illness of the body as well as the mind…”. This section talks about how you feel mentally depending on everything to do with your whole body. That could be getting a little exercise to correcting posture. It is not by chance that very depressed people have a particular posture. Walking and moving like someone who is not depressed is a step towards lifting depression.

Step 3: CREATE HEALING RELATIONSHIPS:
This is the biggest section by far and reflects the authors’ belief that healing comes from the outside. They say that depressed people do not suddenly pull themselves together and snap out of it. They confirm that we overcome depression by interacting in a positive way with others. In this whole section, two things really stuck in my mind. Firstly the idea that we generally do not tell people around us what we need, but when we do start doing this and saying “I need…” then things really start to change. I have tried this technique and I found it scary at first because normally I would say, “I would like…” even when it was something that I desperately needed the other person to do. The technique works, but go carefully with it!
The other thing that stuck in my mind was to do with how many friends/contacts do people typically need. Of course this will vary a lot from person to person and how you classify who is a friend/contact or just someone you nod to in the street.

Step 4: Elevate Your Self-Esteem
They say they have never met anyone with depression who has not had low self-esteem, nor anyone with high self-esteem with depression. They go on to point out that contrary to much current opinion self-esteem cannot be built in isolation and you need a supportive network to help you with this task.

Step 5: Uncover Your Competence
We are all good at something. Working out what that is and doing it is part of the healing process described in this chapter.

Step 6: Access the Power of Shared Purpose
When people lived in tribes the common purpose was obvious. These days we can find ourselves living alongside people whom we do not share common purposes. Being able to share a purpose and work alongside someone to achieve that is extremely uplifting.

Step 7: Deepen Your Relationship to the Divine
This last step worried me, because I thought it was going to get very American and religious. In fact it does neither. They talk about the subject of spirituality in a way that I think almost everyone would find acceptable.

Overall I like this book a lot. It has great potential for alleviating depression and even helping many people to make complete recoveries. I do not think my review fully does it justice as there is so much in its 200+ pages that it has to be read to get the full meaning of each of the ideas.