CHALLENGING DEPRESSION AND DESPAIR

A self-help programme that will change your life

Angela Patmore

• PRICE £10.99
• EXTENT 240 pages
• BINDING Paperback
• FORMAT 234 x 153 mm
• ISBN 978-1-84528-439-8
• PUB DATE 26th November 2010
• BIC CODE VS, VFJ
• CATEGORY Self-Development
• TERRITORIES World Rights

KEY POINTS

• A fresh and accessible self-help programme by a renowned expert on stress and depression
• Positive, common sense strategies which give control back to the reader
• How to combat depression without resorting to mood-altering drugs or costly and sometimes lengthy therapy
• Combines professional experience and scientific research to offer a compelling insight into ‘despair’
• Explores unorthodox yet proven solutions from fear challenges, to the exciting new science of ‘bibliotherapy’
• Angela is passionate about the need for new thinking on depression and despair, and shows how the current ‘calm-down culture’ has only exacerbated the problem

ANGELA PATMORE is a former Guardian columnist on sports psychology and a regular contributor to press and television features on stress. She served on Sir John Stevens’ Metropolitan Police Stress Experts’ Advisory Group and her exposé, The Truth About Stress, was shortlisted for the 2007 MIND Book of the Year Award. Her previous books include Sportsmen Under Stress (a 1986 Times Sports Book of the Year) and Marje: The Guilt and the Gingerbread. From 2003 to 2006, Angela Patmore worked as a life skills trainer within the Employment Service, using a mental skills programme that provides the basis for this book. The results speak for themselves: despite many of the trainees having serious social and mental health issues, during her tenure the company had not only the best outcomes record in the region, but a better record than all of the other training providers combined. She is based in London NW1.

CONTENTS

PART ONE – THE THEORY

• 1.Despair and the ‘born loser’: who suffers and why?
• 2.Calling everything ‘stress’: the harm of mental illness labels
• 3.Calm-downs as a cause
• 4.Crises and creativity
• 5.Avoiding helplessness
• 6.Thrill-seeking & leisure pursuits
• 7.Toughening up
• 8.The arts

PART TWO - THE PRACTICAL

• Restart Training Course & 10 Challenges to Beat Despair:
• 1.The Warm-Up and the Unblocker
• 2.The Fitness Challenge
• 3.The Task Challenge
• 4.The Social Challenge
• 5.The Mood Challenge
• 6.The Brain Challenge
• 7.The Performance Challenge
• 8.The Creative Challenge
• 9.The Fear Challenge
• 10.The Life Challenge