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| Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression | 
 enlarge | Author: Md, James S. Gordon
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $14.48
You Save: $11.47 (44%)
New (37) Used (8) from $12.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 1608
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. Gordons 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 theyve been receiving.
One of our countrys 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 were stuck. Its 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. Gordons 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 depressions 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 9 more reviews...
 Modern Bible for Depression Recovery June 19, 2008
72 out of 73 found this review helpful
*****
This book, written by a psychiatrist who himself has suffered from depression, will be controversial because it describes depression as "the beginning of an unfolding process of self-awareness, not the grim end of a disease process". The author challenges the prevailing model of depression as a medical illness, basing everything upon current brain research and current medical research dealing with depression. This is a very, very important book, one that every person who deals with depression should read.
If you are looking for a quick and dirty way of dealing with depression and want to take medication only, and from then on never think about depression or your life again beyond renewing your prescription, you would do better by NOT buying this book. Recovery from depression does take some work. On the other hand, if you want to know more about current research with SSRI's and view medication as only a part of your approach to dealing with depression, you should DEFINITELY buy this book. If you are like me and wish that you didn't have to take medication at all, and are willing to do some work to recover, you should absolutely buy it---you will love it and benefit greatly from it as I have.
If you want to know what research truly says about SSRI's it's here and more besides. Step-by-step techniques and tools. Examples that I could relate to. Integrating diet and exercise--what is shown to work and what doesn't. Supplementation. Support. Meditation. Movement. Awareness. Obstacles on your journey. Spirituality. There is a chapter on "the dark night of the soul", which includes dealing with suicidal thoughts. Alternative practitioners and alternative supplementation (including SamE, St. John's Wort, and rhodiola. There are huge appendices filled with resources to help you to find out more about every aspect of depression recovery. And of course, for clinicians and others, there are references to formal studies.
"Unstuck" is a resource manual---a bible, even---for depression recovery. It is important for those who have depression and for those who love them and for others who want to know what experts now know about all of the approaches to depression recovery.
Highly recommended.
*****
UPDATE 7-14-08: I just wanted to add that I in no way disparage people who need or want a "medication only" approach for depression. Apparently my review has given this impression to at least one person, and I regret this. Perhaps this will be clearer: if you are adamant that you want pharmaceuticals, and ONLY pharmaceuticals, and you don't care about any integrative adjuvant approaches, AND you don't care what any studies say about the medication you are taking, your money would be wasted by purchasing this book. If you are happy and cured of your depression, in your own estimation, then you are indeed fortunate and certainly would not want this book. You would not be or feel stuck, and thus would not want to be "unstuck".
 Medicine and Delusion June 26, 2008
52 out of 116 found this review helpful
I am a trained clinican and researcher who now appreciates how little we really understand about the mechanism of hope and illness. Dr. Gordon makes a promise of providing hope at the very beginning of Unstuck. When I was diagnosed with a chronic, life-threatening illness, at Johns Hopkins University, I was so devastated, in pain, and hopeless that I turned to Dr. Jim Gordon, based on his reputation for alternative approaches to healing. To my surprise and relief, he told me that he could cure this illness, the only physician who made such a claim. He took me off my life-sustaining medication and put me on a diet of lettuce and yogurt. Under his intense care, I withered, my pain became excruciating, and I came very close to dying. After returning to my regular doctor, I settled into a productive and relatively healthy life.
Patients who are in despair are exquisitely vulnerable, and need to be very cautious about this book, and how they seek help. It is important to work with a physician who understands that, even more than hope, his first responsibility is humbly to do no harm.
Video review by Alan Cheuse of NPR's All Things Considered June 30, 2008
44 out of 46 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RZPU0Y4O1J8HZ
A plan that everyone can follow July 19, 2008
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is an excellent book; well structured, easy read, with a plan anyone can follow. Each section build on the other. He explains the why and wherefore and then give a Rx at the end of each chapter. This process can used by itself or,in connection with your peronal medical professionals.
I particularly like the alternatives methods which he explains,in depth,so that a person can make their own informed choices. Personally, I am a vitamin and mineral advocate, but I know many who are quite pleased with herbal remedies.
It takes courage to buck the system and I am thrilled to see MD's starting to open the door to alternative ways. I have worked in hospitals for years and have seen the other side of the drug industry. They do just as much harm as they do good,in my opinion, and I think it takes courage to stand up and lead the way to safer health care.
It is definately on my reading and referral list to my clients as well as fellow medical professionals.
I HEARTFULLY RECOMMEND "UNSTUCK" July 3, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
As the Registered Nurse for a large Breast Care Center, I see about one-third of the women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in Sonoma County, California. I am recommending this book to many of my patients, plus some of my hundreds of patients in our Cardiovascular Health Assessment Program. You don't have to "be depressed" to benefit from "Unstuck."
Dr. Jim Gordon's beautifully written book offers a model of simple practices yoked with profound insight for all of us during those inevitable times in our lives when we feel anxious, stressed, confused, conflicted or, yes, depressed.
Dr. Gordon offers scientifically-sound and research-validated approaches combined in a way anyone can learn. If you seek to build on your own strengths, regain your sense of humor, mobilize your inner resiliency, restore your sense of meaning, and improve your mood and optimism about the future, look here.
Everyone knows we "should relax", but, really, how can we do that at times when life feels difficult and chaotic? This work provides the EXPERIENCE of being able make a difference in our lives. If we learn we can quiet ourselves a little bit, that opens up the possibility that we can feel a little more peaceful, think a little more clearly, and begin to heal ourselves and our communities.
Here is the model Dr. Gordon and people trained by him have used around the world -- with people facing chronic illness and cancer; the 52 children in the yellow school bus that careened to the edge of the collapsing Minneapolis bridge; survivors of Hurricane Katrina; 9/11 firefighters and their families; stressed out nurses and physicians; shell-shocked young breast feeding mothers in a war zone; victims of Apartheid; war-traumatized children; Palestinians and Israelis in groups together; orphaned girls; former prisoners; people who have lived through torture; child soldiers from Mozambique; professionals who care for traumatized populations; and now, soldiers and soon civilians with trauma from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Jim Gordon is a highly-respected Harvard educated physician and clinical professor in the departments of psychiatry and family medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington D.C.
"Unstuck" is richly and authentically written. You can hear Jim's incredibly kind voice and generosity of spirit and compassion and open heartedness and the best of well-wishes for your well-being.
Here in California with the wild fires raging, we ponder, "What would I take with me if a fire drew near." For me, Jim's book and the CDs from trainings with him would certainly be in my duffel.
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