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| Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression | 
 enlarge | Author: James S. Gordon M.d.
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (18 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4269
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.6
ISBN: 1594201668
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8527
EAN: 9781594201660
ASIN: 1594201668
Publication Date: June 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A groundbreaking, inspiring, and practical guide to healing depression without the use of antidepressants, from world-renowned, Harvard trained psychiatrist Dr. James S. Gordon
Each year, as many as twenty million Americans are diagnosed with clinical depression. Tens of millions more have low energy or feel unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives. And each year, American doctors write 189 million prescriptions for antidepressant drugs for these people. Dr. James Gordon, a Harvard Medical School-educated psychiatrist who founded and directs The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C., has been helping his patients find their way out of the darkness of depression for the past forty years. He has worked with everyone from high-powered Washington politicians to Hurricane Katrina victims, from overstressed doctors, lawyers, and stay-at-home moms to orphans from war-ravaged Kosovo and Gaza. Each one of Dr. Gordon?s patients is unique, but all suffer from some level of depression, and none are getting relief from the antidepressant drugs their doctors keep prescribing or the psychotherapy they?ve been receiving.
One of our country?s most distinguished psychiatrists and a pioneer in integrative medicine, Dr. Gordon believes that depression is not an end point, a disease over which we have no control. It is a sign that our lives are out of balance, that we?re stuck. It?s a wake-up call and the start of a journey that can help us become whole and happy, one that can change and transform our lives. Unstuck is a practical, easy-to-use guide explaining the seven stages of Dr. Gordon?s approach and the steps we can take to exert control over our own lives and find hope and happiness. Unstuck is designed for anyone who is suffering from depression, from mild subclinical depression (?the blues?) to its severest forms.
Dr. Gordon shows us how doctors and patients alike have come to depend on antidepressants, and how these drugs have disappointed so many. He then carefully links each of his seven stages to helpful suggestions for relieving depression?s symptoms. Using dramatic and inspiring examples from the patients he has worked with over the years, he explains the useful, mood-healing benefits of: food and nutritional supplements; Chinese medicine; movement, exercise, and dance; psychotherapy, meditation and guided imagery; and spiritual practice and prayer. He concludes each chapter with a carefully designed Prescription for Self-Care, guidelines to help each person play an active, effective role in their own healing. The result is Unstuck, an incredibly thoughtful, practical, and meditative guide to the difficult but rewarding journey out of depression. James
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Everything in Moderation December 31, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Havent read the book yet but have read many like it...im glad doctors are finally talking about other treatments but lets not all bash medications either.....i think for many they are lifesavers....Ive had on and off panic disorder for 20 years....very disabling and after trying weekly accupuncture with md for 1 year, reikki with a psychiatrist, diet changes, excercise(long distance running, workout daily), hypnosis, intense daily breathing excercise, meditation, intense cognitive behavioral/psychotheray, herbs/vitamins....only thing that every worked was when i incorporated this with low dose meds(5 to 10 mg prozac and .25 klonopin)...i think alternative natural treatments should be tried first but if they fail, medications are a good option.....yes, they are overpresribed and at too high a dose...people need to incorporate the alterative with the meds....you cant just take the pill and expect to get instantly better.....plus, natural medicine..ie herbs, etc are drugs and need to be used also with caution......everything in moderation
 An extremely important book... November 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Congrat. to the author. While the book may argue a bit too strongly against drugs to "cure' depression, this only minutely offsets the bs written in most books by shrinks who dispense SSRIs and so on like candy.
I was given SSRIs a long time ago when they were fairly new to the market. Paxil to be precise. The word was that these wonder drugs had a rifle approach, limited side effects (i.e., one being you couldn't kill yourself with them), and were easy to get off. Then, with each successive year, the truth came out. Sexual side effects, sleep side effects, sweating, tremors, feeling a bit like a zombie, and so on. Not to mention possible suicidal ideations for both young and old!
Then, there is withdrawal. "Oh, sorry, I guess there are severe withdrawal symptoms. Try tapering." "Brain zaps, that's normal." "SSRI syndrome" --- that can happen.
These are extremely strong drugs. Extremely. And they do not have a rifle approach. "Listening to Prozac" was bs written by someone who must have profited from dispensing these powerful pills.
Oh, and sometimes they don't work. Or work only slightly better than a placebo or exercise.
In my opinion, money hungry drug companies and cheap insurance companies love these drugs. Rather than really help someone through, say, intensive talk therapy with a highly skilled professional, insurance companies prefer the pills because they are much cheaper. Even if severely depressed, most insurance polices will only entitle someone to one hour a week, possibly with an MSW who specializes in marriage counseling. It's pathetic. Enough gripping.
This book is really needed. Paxil and so on are not meant to be taken permanently, yet many people are given permanent prescriptions. Moreover, they often stop working after a while. Prescribing more and more pills, at best, attacks the symptoms of depression, not the causes.
But they are one arrow in the quiver and may be useful for some severely depressed people, especially on a short term basis (less than a year). That's my opinion. As well as that of many others who give up on the pills despite still being depressed. And resign themselves to a life of depression and misery becuase "the pills" don't work. This book may provide some help and perspective.
My advice --- do your own research, listen to your body as well as your doctor and don't only rely on a pill doc. Also, go to a talk doc. These pills should be closer to a last resort rather than a first line of defense. Finally, don't over rely on these pills and plan on getting off of them if your depression lifts of its own accord.
I loved this book September 19, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Having been through a depression or two myself, and having had limited results with medication, I love the way this book approaches the subject. I think our society just relies too heavily on medication for an illness that goes so much further beyond creating a cure for a "chemical imbalance". I realize this may not be for everyone, and some people may really need medication to get by. For the most part, I am living proof that a depressed person can get better without medication, and lead a relatively happy. A lof of these steps I found out for myself and on my own - I only wish this book was around 20 years ago when I was caught up in the mother of all depressions. I highly recommend this for everyone.
Nice treatise, but a couple of troubling things... September 10, 2008
24 out of 26 found this review helpful
I'm almost sorry that I read this book. On one hand, the author really put together a fairly comprehensive and well-thought out set of treatment recommendations. I have no doubt that there would be tremendous benefit to the wholistic approach of yoga, meditation, social interaction, improved diet, and exercise, etc. in overcoming many instances of depression - but not all. In the depths of gloom and doom, it can be difficult, if not impossible, just to do something as trivial as brush your teeth or clean yourself in the morning let alone find the strength to self-motivate and begin - as well as sustain - a progam similar to the approach described above.
The author further indicates that he typically obtains better results with a depressed patient after 10-12 weeks of therapy than he would have had the patient received anti-depressant treatment. I can't dispute his findings, but I do question them, particularly in acutely depressed patients. Of course, one of the main themes of the book is that anti-depressants are of little to no use, which is effectively throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It's just too extreme a reaction, in my opinion.
While I agree that they are certainly wildly overprescribed, I just don't think anti-depressants are useless. Moreover, I do not share the author's view that most/all depression has no organic basis and therefore can be treated by wholistic methods alone. One treatment method in the book, for example, was some kind of cognitive therapy where the patient was taught to avoid 'self-defeating' thoughts. I call that the 'Cancel That Thought Therapy', or the 'Don't Think of an Elephant in the Room Therapy', and as far as I'm concerned, it's a pretty useless approach - at least that's been my experience.
In summary, I do think that this book provides a ton of very good things that would enrich anyone's life. But in the case of seriously depressed people, I believe that anti-depressants may provide at least some kind of short-term intervention that wholistic methods alone (or together!) may not be able to. On balance, despite it's usefullness, I find it difficult to recommend this book unequivocally based on these criteria.
The organic solurion to depression September 7, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Jim Gordon's Unstuck is the first book I know of that gives away the store. To gain this insight in the past would have cost you years of therapy, drug testing and miserable years of life. In this book you get all of it summarized and explained in depth. By reading this book you can help yourself and avoid all the wasted time and visits to pill pushers.
Dr. Gordon is a genius and has shaken the industry that has grown around depression treatment to its roots. His writing is clear and careful as well as easy to read. Thank you Dr. Gordon!
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