Against Depression. Peter Kramer, $21.00

Frank and unflinching, Against Depression is a deeply felt, deeply moving book, grounded in time spent with the depressed. As his argument unfolds, Kramer becomes a crusader, the author of a compassionate polemic that is fiercely against depression and the devastation it causes. Like Listening to Prozac, Against Depression will offer hope to millions who suffer from depression — and radically alter the debate on its treatment.

Beyond Crazy: Journeys through Mental Illness. Julia Nunes & Scott Simmie, $24.99

Through powerful stories of Canadians from all walks of life, it demonstrates how it is possible to get past the stigma and the labels and move forward. This book is an important source of inspiration and hope" — Canadian Mental Health Association

Breaking Free from Depression: Pathways to Wellness. Jesse Wright & Laura McCray, $23.95

When it comes to treating depression, one size definitely doesn't fit all. How do you find the science-based treatment that will work for you? What can you do to restore the motivation that is so essential for overcoming this illness? This workbook will help you to learn proven ways to break the cycle of negative thinking, restore energy and a sense of well-being, strengthen your relationships, and make informed decisions about medications.

BREAKING FREE FROM DEPRESSION describes powerful treatment tools and a flexible menu of self-help strategies you can try today or turn to in the future. Dozens of reproducible worksheets and forms are included for you to complete in the book or download and print for repeated use.

Change Your Thinking: Overcome Stress, Anxiety & Depression and Improve Your Life with CBT. Sarah Edelman, $24.00

A highly practical guide for taking charge of your negative emotions through cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) — the evidence based treatment methods used by clinical psychologists.

Crazy Like Us: the Globalization of the American Psyche. Ethan Watters, $34.00

It is well known that American culture is a dominant force at home and abroad; the exportation of everything from movies to junk food is a well-documented phenomenon. But is it possible America's most troubling impact on the globalizing world has yet to be accounted for?

For millennia, local beliefs in different cultures have shaped the experience of mental illness into endless varieties. Crazy Like Us documents how American interventions have discounted and worked to change those indigenous beliefs, often at a dizzying rate. Over the last decades, mental illnesses popularized in America have been spreading across the globe with the speed of contagious diseases. Watters travels from China to Tanzania to bring home the unsettling conclusion that the virus is us: As we introduce Americanized ways of treating mental illnesses, we are in fact spreading the diseases.

Depression is Contagious: How the Most Common Mood Disorder is Spreading around the World and How to Stop It. Michael Yapko, $19.99

Depression’s effects reach into interactions with others, rippling destructively through marriages, families, work environments, and communities like a viral contagion. While commonly prescribed drugs address some of depression's symptoms, they cannot change the social factors that cause and perpetuate the disorder.

Michael Yapko culls from the latest findings in neuroscience, social psychology, epidemiology and genetics to provide a practical, proven plan for developing the skills and insights you need to forge stronger, healthier social connections and enjoy an enriching, interconnected life. Dr. Yapko's groundbreaking plan of action is filled with skill-building emotional and mental exercises, anecdotes and illuminating explanations.

The Depression Cure: the 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs.  Stephen Ilardi, $18.95

In looking at the increasing rates of depression diagnoses, Dr. Stephen Ilardi reminds us that our bodies were never designed for the sleep-deprived, poorly nourished, frenzied pace of twenty-first century life. In The Depression Cure, Ilardi prescribes an easy-to-follow, clinically proven program that harks back to what our bodies were originally made for and what they continue to need.

Depression 101: a Practical Guide to Treatments, Self-Help Strategies and Preventing Relapse.  John Preston & Melissa Kirk, $19.95

When you have depression, it can feel like there's no way out. To begin changing the way you feel, you'll need an arsenal of proven techniques for lifting your mood and preventing relapse. The pocket-sized Depression 101 distills the most effective cognitive behavioral therapy skills available for treating depression into seven manageable chapters that will help you find the way out of depression and into a healthier, happier life.

When we are regularly undone by our emotions, we become victims of damaged relationships, trapped circumstances, self-sabotage, and illness. This workbook offers help to all of us who want to gain the upper hand on our feelings and our lives. Even high reactors, people disposed to experiencing strong, even overwhelming emotions on a regular basis, will find its strategies easy to use and effective at managing frequent emotional flare-ups.

Finding Your Bipolar Muse: How to Master Depressive Droughts and Manic Floods and Access Your Creative Power. Lana Castle, $20.95

Lana Castle draws from research, interviews, surveys, and her own experience to examine what bipolar disorder and depression bring to the creative mix. Drawing from forty-five years experience in the arts, Castle shares first-hand knowledge, tools, and resources to help both aspiring and professional “creatives” affected by mood disorders overcome challenges and move forward. Illuminating and inspiring, Castle's new book helps artists of all types deal with depressive droughts and manic floods. With sensitivity and grace, Castle explains how “creatives” can tap their talents to recover their lives. Readers will learn how to: manage medications and treatment without thwarting creativity; find focus; set daily, weekly, and monthly goals; develop self-esteem and independence; use their creative talents to generate income.

Get It Done When You're Depressed. Julie Fast & John Preston, $16.50

We live in a culture that rewards (and often worships) productivity, so when a depressed person can’t meet the expectations of society, the depression often becomes worse and a vicious cycle begins. The goal of Getting Things Done When You’re Depressed is to break this cycle. Readers will learn:

• How to prepare yourself mentally for working while depressed
• How to structure your environment so you can work more easily
• How to work with others
• How to prevent depression

Listening to Depression: a New Way of Thinking about Depression. Lara Honos-Webb, $18.95

What does it really mean to be depressed? You know depression as a collection of symptoms — fatigue, listlessness, feelings of worthlessness — and the source of more than a little pain. But depression is also a signal that something in your life is wrong and needs to be healed. Too often, though, we try to cut off or numb our feelings of depression instead of listening carefully to what they are telling us about our lives. This book offers insightful ways to reframe depression as a gift that can help you transform your life for the better. Each chapter discusses a different aspect of depression as positive opportunity for growth or change. Depression can be the start of a reorientation in life, a step in the search for meaning, or a chance for letting go of hurtful aspects of the self. It can also be a chance to deal with grief and loss and learn to expand your potential. The book concludes with a section of advice about when it is important to defend against depression and how best to go about it when the need arises.

Mind and Emotions: a Universal Treatment for Emotional Disorders. Mathew McKay, Patrick Fanning & Patricia Zurita Ona, $24.95

We all have our own ways of handling stressful situations without letting emotions get the best of us, but some ways of coping work better than others. Short-term fixes that help us avoid or numb our emotions may temporarily alleviate sadness and anger, but can also end up causing anxiety, depression, chronic anger, and even physical health problems.

MIND AND EMOTIONS is a revolutionary universal treatment program for emotional disorders that helps treat the root of all your emotional suffering at once. Drawing on evidence-based skills from cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy, this workbook offers all the techniques you need to manage unwelcome feelings in effective and productive ways. Learn and practice the most effective coping skills:

• Clarifying and acting on your core values
• Mindfulness and acceptance
• Detaching from negative thoughts
• Self-soothing and relaxation exercises
• Assertiveness and interpersonal skills
• Gradually facing your strong emotions

The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness. J. Mark G. Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal& Jon Kabat-Zinn, $20.50

The Mindful Way through Depression draws on the collective wisdom of four internationally renowned mindfulness experts, including bestselling author Jon Kabat-Zinn, to provide effective relief from the most prevalent psychological disorder. This authoritative, easy-to-use self-help program is based on methods clinically proven to reduce the recurrence of depression. Revealing the hidden psychological mechanisms that cause chronic unhappiness, the authors gently guide readers through a series of exercises designed to break the mental habits that lead to despair. Kabat-Zinn lends his calm, familiar voice to the accompanying CD of guided meditations, making this a complete package for anyone looking to regain a sense of balance and contentment.

The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Depression. Kirk Strosahl & Patricia Robinson, $28.95

Learn how to use acceptance and commitment therapy to move through depression and create a life worth living. Includes a CD with guided imagery and mindfulness exercises.

Opening up the darkest corners of her world, author Elizabeth Swados takes us on an unforgettable journey that is by turns poignant and funny, and will be undoubtedly familiar to those who suffer from depression and those who love them. Through the author's whimsical drawings, readers get a unique view of the experience of depression: from the struggle to keep her condition a secret, to the strange effects of "new" drugs, to the small things that can trigger relapses.

The New Black: Mourning, Melancholia and Depression. Darian Leader, $20.00

Drawing on examples from literature, art, cinema and history as well as case studies from Leader’s work as a psychoanalyst, The New Black explores the unconscious ways our culture responds to the experience of loss.

Pregnancy Blues: What Every Woman Needs to Know about Depression During Pregnancy. Shaila Kulkarni Misri, $21.00

The numbers are surprising: up to 70 percent of pregnant women experience some degree of depressive symptoms and of those, 12 percent meet the diagnostic criteria for major depression. Although it is at least as common as postpartum depression, which occurs after a child's birth, pregnancy-related depression is often cloaked in silence, shame, and denial. Pregnancy Blues lifts the veil on this heartbreaking and very treatable illness, examining the key social and biological factors that can come together during pregnancy to create a climate in which depression thrives, as well as offering the many effective treatments that are available.

A Secret Sadness: the Hidden Relationship Patterns that Make Women Depressed. Valerie Whiffen, $23.00

This breakthrough book examines the often hidden relationship factors that make women depressed, the secret sadness that can last a lifetime.

The 10 Best-Ever Depression Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Depressed & What You Can Do to Change It. Margaret Wehrenberg, $25.00

Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience research, clinician Margaret Wehrenberg provides a strategy-filled handbook to understand, manage and conquer your depression.

Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression. James Gordon, $20.00

Despite the billions spent on prescription anti-depressant drugs and psychotherapy, people everywhere continue to grapple with depression. Unstuck is psychiatrist James Gordon’s seven-stage program for relief through food and nutritional supplements; Chinese medicine; movement, exercise and dance; psychotherapy, meditation, and guided imagery; and spiritual practice. The result is a remarkable guide that puts the power to change in the hands of those ready to say “no” to suffering and drugs and “yes” to hope and happiness.

If your depression keeps coming back or is even getting worse, then you may be suffering from bipolar II or “soft” bipolar disorder. Commonly misdiagnosed, these mood disorders are characterized by recurring bouts of depression along with anxiety, irritability, mood swings, sleep problems, or intrusive thoughts. Why Am I Still Depressed shows you how to identify if you have a non-manic form of bipolar disorder and how to work with your doctor to safely and effectively treat it.

Writing through the Darkness: Easing Your Depression with Paper and Pen. Elizabeth Maynard Schaefer, $17.95

Writing through the Darkness is a practical and supportive guide to using creative writing exercises to ease the pain of depression. Practical how-to discussions and plentiful exercises demonstrate how writing can help those with depression modulate their moods and develop greater insight into their symptoms.