Surviving The Darkness Lessons Learned From A Battle With Depression And Anxiety

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Last Christmas I almost killed myself. Almost. I've had a lot of almosts. Never gone from almost to deed. Don't think I ever will. But it was a bad almost. Living Better is Alastair Campbell's honest, moving and life affirming account of his lifelong struggle with depression. It is an autobiographical, psychological and psychiatric study, which explores his own childhood, family and other relationships, and examines the impact of his professional and political life on himself and those around him. But it also lays bare his relentless quest to understand depression not just through his own life but through different treatments. Every bit as direct and driven, clever and candid as he is, this is a book filled with pain, but also hope -- he examines how his successes have been in part because of rather than despite his mental health problems -- and love. We all know someone with depression. There is barely a family untouched by it. We may be talking about it more than we did, back in the era of 'boys don't cry' - they did you know - and when a brave face or a stiff upper lip or a best foot forward was seen as the only way to go. But we still don't talk about it enough. There is still stigma, and shame, and taboo. There is still the feeling that admitting to being sad or anxious makes us weak. It took me years, decades even to get to this point, but I passionately believe that the reverse is true and that speaking honestly about our feelings and experiences (whether as a depressive or as the friend or relative of a depressive) is the first and best step on the road to recovery. So that is what I have tried to do here.

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

The courage it takes to? · Run into a burning building· Lay down your life for your child· Fight and defend our country ?is the SAME courage it takes to reach out for help when the tools and resources you have are no longer working. Mental health battles do not discriminate. We all have scars people can't see. But we can find HOPE on the other side of pain. During my two-year battle with suicide, it felt like my mind was kidnapped and held for ransom. Join me as I share what it took to get my life and mind back. I hope to help you find the courage to save yourself! - Jennifer Tracy?Walk with Jennifer as she holds nothing back and takes you inside the mind of suicide. Jennifer will light the way with Hope for those who are still in the fury of the storm. She'll inspire you to think differently as she shares how her two-year battle with suicide prepared her to fight for herself and her surviving daughters after the death of her husband and daughter. This book is packed with the powerful lessons she found buried beneath decades of pain.

Have you ever wondered what people who are suicidal think? Have you ever wondered how someone can go from being ok one day and then gone the next day? Have you ever truly thought about the courage it takes to? · Admit that you need help?· Talk to someone about your troubles· Seek assistance when you fear the consequences ?it takes incredible courage to reach out for help when the tools and resources you have are no longer working. Mental health battles do not discriminate. We all have scars others can't see. But we can find HOPE on the other side of pain. During my two-year battle with deep depression and suicidal thoughts, it felt like my mind was kidnapped and held for ransom. Join me as I share what it took to get my life and mind back. I hope to help you find the courage to save yourself or someone you care about! - Jennifer Tracy Walk with Jennifer as she holds nothing back and takes you inside the mind of suicide, grief, depression, and pain. She'll inspire you to think differently as she shares how her two-year battle with suicide actually PREPARED her to know how to fight for herself and her surviving daughters when her husband and daughter were killed in a car crash. This book is packed with the powerful lessons she found buried beneath decades of pain. Jennifer will light the way with Hope for those who are still seemingly trapped within the dark maze of depression or facing the fury of the storm.

Therese Borchard may be one of the frankest, funniest people on the planet. That, combined with her keen writing abilities has made her Beliefnet blog, Beyond Blue, one of the most trafficked blogs on the site. BEYOND BLUE, the book, is part memoir/part self-help. It describes Borchard's experience of living with manic depression as well as providing cutting-edge research and information on dealing with mood disorders. By exposing her vulnerability, she endears herself immediately to the reader and then reduces even the most depressed to laughter as she provides a companion on the journey to recovery and the knowledge that the reader is not alone. Comprised of four sections and twenty-one chapters, BEYOND BLUE covers a wide range of topics from codependency to addiction, poor body image to postpartum depression, from alternative medicine to psychopharmacology, managing anxiety to applying lessons from therapy. Because of her laser wit and Erma Bombeck sense of humor, every chapter is entertaining as well as serious.

#1 New York Times Bestseller “Funny and smart as hell” (Bill Gates), Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations. FROM THE PUBLISHER: Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices. This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written. Brosh’s debut marks the launch of a major new American humorist who will surely make even the biggest scrooge or snob laugh. We dare you not to. FROM THE AUTHOR: This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative—like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it—but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book: Pictures Words Stories about things that happened to me Stories about things that happened to other people because of me Eight billion dollars* Stories about dogs The secret to eternal happiness* *These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!

Anxiety. Depression. Fear. Panic attacks. These are the crippling mental health conditions that left Stephanie Mossi trapped in the darkness, hopeless and defeated. When Stephanie was five years old, her father was involved in a near-fatal incident that left her shakenaEUR"and while her father's physical scars healed, Stephanie's mental scars never faded. Over the course of the next twenty-three years, Stephanie struggled to live her life as close to "normal" as she could, meaning she often hid the anxiety and depression that threatened to overtake her until she found herself at rock bottom, overcome by out-of-control mental health conditions. Overwhelmed by the person she was becoming, it wasn't until Stephanie accepted the fact that the anxiety and depression she had been struggling with were true diseases requiring treatment, that she could begin navigating her way out of the darkness. Walk with Stephanie through her lifelong journey of living through mental health diseases as her faith is tested and she desperately searches to get relief of her symptoms. Get a firsthand view of the thought processes and symptoms that can accompany mental health diseases. "Simultaneously poignant and uplifting, Stephanie Mossi's debut memoir is not to be missed." aEUR"Kristen Hamilton, Kristen Corrects, Inc.