Recovery from Depression Using the Narrative Approach

Damien Ridge is a reader in Integrated Health at the University of Westminster, following positions as Senior Research Fellow at City University London and Senior Qualitative Researcher at Oxford University. He has been a specialist qualitative researcher for over 15 years, with expertise in understanding how people give meaning to recovering from mental health problems. He is widely published in leading scientific journals, including Social Science & Medicine and Sociology of Health & Illness. Damien lives in Brixton and is a regular meditation and yoga practitioner.

Urging professionals to act as recovery allies to their patients - listening out for the things they do not say, helping them to select the narratives that most resonate with the way they are feeling, and suggesting and helping assemble a selection of helpful tools - widening the focus from simply prescribing anti-depressants, to considering and encompassing the many other options and resources available, Recovery from Depression shows how offering patients a choice and the feeling of an active role can initiate and encourage continued recovery.

• Acknowledgements. Preface: About this Book. 1. Introduction. 2. Life Prior to a Diagnosis. 3. The Experience of Depression. 4. Recovering from Depression. 5. Medical Tools. 6. Non-Medical Recovery Tools. 7. Health Professionals as Recovery Allies. 8. Talking Therapies. 9. Summing It Up. Appendix: Participant Biographical Details. References. Recommended Reading. List of Boxes. List of Case Studies. Subject Index. Author Index.