July 23, 2007

MINNEAPOLIS – Are you blue? Do you feel low, unusually tired, sad much of the time, depressed? Do you have a family member or close friend who is depressed? Perhaps you are uncertain whether it is depression or something else. Maybe you are looking for specific things you can do to send depression packing. Then Defeating Depression: Real Help for You and Those Who Love You by Howard W. Stone is written for you.

While books on depression abound, what makes this book unique is that it speaks both to the person experiencing depression and to that person's network of family members and friends. Depression is a multifaceted disorder that has four primary faces: behavioral, cognitive, interpersonal, and physiological. Defeating Depression will suggest ways for the reader to address each of these aspects of depression effectively. It offers specific, achievable steps that will not only diminish the suffering, but also increase joy and satisfaction in life.

Defeating Depression offers a five-minute quiz to help readers determine whether or not they are depressed. Each chapter includes sidebars that summarize key points of the chapter and-more importantly-call the reader to action with a list of specific, doable steps. The book also features sidebars offering specific ideas and suggestions for those with loved ones suffering from depression (which also help them guard against slipping into depression themselves).

"There is a wealth of information here. Practical. Accessible. A workbook that is authoritative and current. Stone assists the reader to see depression as a spiritual crisis, as well as a psychological one." – Harold G. Koenig, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center.

"Defeating Depression not only provides a vocabulary for our most intense emotions and feelings associated with depression, it deciphers the often mysterious return to vitality. The work has quickly become my most effective tool in helping the depressed, their loved ones and education pastoral caregivers." – W. Kyle Fauntleroy, Naval Chaplains School.

"Stone offers a framework for addressing the multiple dimensions of depression. Persons dealing with depression, family members and friends, as well as clergy and other helping professionals can benefit from this book." – Teresa E. Snorton, Executive Director, Association of Clinical Pastoral Education.

"Defeating Depression . . . will give everyone who reads it a new perspective on a disease that has long been steeped in misconceptions and contempt." – William D. Po, M.D., Wright State University, Boonscroft School of Medicine.

"Melancholy (depression) is ‘knocking at a the door.' Howard Stone offers a way to manage, not eliminate, the unwanted intruder: depression. Defeating Depression is not an amalgamation of facts to banish the disorderly and disruptive interloper, but a reframing of the possibilities to embrace this uninvited guest. In doing so, Howard Stone offers the means to save not only the individual but the threatened household as well." – Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.

"Right from the beginning of the first page one senses a presence of empowerment and hope for the reader and the gentle yet firm nudge of a voice that beckons, ‘Let's get going.'" – Douglas M. Ronsheim¸ Executive Director, American Association of Pastoral Counselors.

Howard W. Stone, Ph.D., is a psychologist, marriage and family therapist, and professor emeritus at Texas Christian University. He is the author of a number of influential books on pastoral care and counseling and has served on numerous editorial boards of professional journals. Stone has suffered from depression himself, and he continues to cope with it using many of the methods provided in this book.

Defeating Depression: Real Help for You and Those Who Love You, By Howard W. Stone, Item Number: 978-0-8066-9031-5, Price: $17.99 / CAN $21.500 / UK £9.99, Specs: 7" x 9.25," paperback, 240 pages.

To order Defeating Depression call Augsburg Fortress at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.augsburgfortress.org/.

Augsburg Fortress