Stop Depression Now download epub

Writing as an ex-Army officer and a retired university professor who has had three serious surgeries and suffered more than a dozen deaths of family members and friends in the past decade, some of my depression was "situational." Additionally, for over 60 years I had also suffered from a relatively mild chronic depression that I self-treated with exercise, music, and meditation.

About three years ago, my own remedies were no longer sufficent--a dozen times a day I would find myself thinking or whispering to myself, "I wish I were just dead." By luck, I stumbled across an article that mentioned SAM-e, and by further luck I had a friend (a neuro-scientist at Stanford Univ.) that I could e-mail and ask if he'd ever heard of it. He replied that Richard Brown, a friend of his at Cornell Univ., had co-written a book, STOP DEPRESSION NOW, which would give me more answers than he could. I bought the book, read it, and then tried SAM-e.

I began with 200 mg. of SAM-e, and within two weeks my depression was greatly relieved--it was as if a heavy layer of ice which was pressing down on the roof of a house had suddenly melted and slid off. Within four weeks, at a slightly higher dosage of SAM-e, my depression was totally gone. Of course problems and feelings of grief were still there, but I was able to deal with them without dark feelings of hopelessness getting in my way.

On pages 117-118 of this book, you'll find a standard psychiatric test ("Depression Severity Scale") with ten simple questions to answer. With it, you can determine easily your level of depression and can measure any improvements you experience. The pages following this test explain clearly what your possible scores signify. For many people, these will be the most useful pages in the whole book.

People who are bipolar are warned in the "Author's Note" (opposite the table of contents) that "bipolar patients may become manic on any effective antidepressant and may develop mild, brief hypomania on SAM-e. . . ." Apparently a few bipolar people have missed or ignored this warning (which is also printed on the side of all SAM-e boxes that I have seen). They are urged to take SAM-e only under the supervision of a qualified doctor.

I've read the whole book twice, underlining passages, and have marked up the margins with comments and questions. I've also thumbed through it to re-read specific passages. To me, the book seems a bit too dumbed down for "old people" (although I'm now old myself)--I wish it were a bit more "scientific" in its explanations. (There is a bibliography of scientific studies in the back, but how many of us have access to libraries that would contain such specialized materials?)

I am grateful to the three authors of this book--Richard Brown (psychiatrist), Teodoro Bottiglieri (neuropharmacologist), and Carol Colman (medical writer)--for giving me the confidence to try SAM-e. I would like to see a revised, updated edition of this book, since it has been more than a decade since it came out. One improvement I would strongly suggest is that they add an index.

In my judgment, this book deserves 4 stars for drawing people's attention to the benefits of SAM-e. And SAM-e deserves (based on my experience) to be awarded 10 stars.

Good book to read

The best book for deppresed people

Updated 6.3.16

Recently I started taking 200mg of SAM-e again after not taking it for a year. Well, I am happy yo say that it works to lift my mood well.

This book is wonderful and it describes how SAM-e works and so much more This book I suggest if you are thinking about trying SAM-e. It really helped me.

A great book, a must read.....

Dr. Brown MD is a fantastic writer. This books can help many people with depression.

Lots of useful information.

The book is good. It help to explain how to use SAM-e. It is SAM-e that is the miracle worker!
For those who have lived with depression, SAM-e is a real spiritual lift. Never knew life could be like this!
No, the problems do not change or go away. But your ability to deal with them improves. And if you add some good self-help books and therapy, life can really be worth living. And worth fixing what is wrong in your life, too!
If you know some one who is depressed, get this book and read it! It will enable you to be more helpful. But don't be pushy or play therapist.
Just help your friend get the help they deserve and need.
God bless!