A review by serru
Getting It Done When You're Depressed: 50 Strategies for Keeping Your Life on Track by John Preston, Julie A. Fast

4.0

Julie Fast offers effective strategies to be productive when you're depressed. Her writing is clear and concise and I like the fact that she doesn't spend much time discussing why you're depressed-- I find that knowing the cause of depression doesn't really decrease the depression (sometimes it even makes it worse), but getting something done makes me feel better immediately. A lot of the things in this book will be hard for a depressed person to hear (or read), but I found it extremely helpful. Her strategies are quite simple and a lot less tedious to do than the lengthy writing exercises in [b:Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy|46674|Feeling Good The New Mood Therapy|David D. Burns|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255630070s/46674.jpg|1892311]; I was able to use my time directly on whatever work I needed to get done instead of doing extra writing exercises to convince myself to work. However, as with all books on depression, this book won't be very useful unless the depressed person him- or herself is open-minded and willing to try out some of the strategies. The main point of all these books is that you must take action in order to feel better quickly. This book won't be helpful at all if the person himself cannot muster up the (sometimes small, sometimes big) effort.