7 Steps To Overcoming Anxiety and Depression [Paperback]

It is a non-service to treat real concerns lightly.
This book reads like a collection of inept contributions - without substance. Worse, it trivializes serious matters in a very offensive way - ie: p145: with reference to a woman at Auschwitz - "In a small brave voice, she said, Good Morning, Sir"...she was spared because of one life-affirming Good Morning. Yes, positive energy does yield positive solutions."
How ignorant and how insulting! I am sending this book back to the publisher.

I assumed I'd open this book and find seven clear chapters describing the steps to overcome depression and anxiety using Null's trademark holistic methodology. Instead, we get 8 pages in the introduction delineating the 7 steps, and then we don't read about them again. We get a chapter of "mood altering" vegetarian recipes, some of which look good but how they're going to alter my mood I'm not quite certain. We get a chapter of "positive affirmations," for instance, no. 308: "How many people end up wasting a lot of their time trying to go through life achieving things to prove that they're okay?" Where I come from, that's not an affirmation, it's a question, worded in the negative. We get a chapter called "88 ways to supercharge your immune system" which is a list of nutrition research abstracts. Gary is a prodigious reader and has done his homework for us on this. There are several chapters at the beginning of the book which are well written and thoughtful, although they have nothing to do with the title of the book. Gary has some very important things to say about the giving of psychotropic drugs and electro-convulsive therapy to school-age children and the elderly, discusses drug side effects and the problem with our current definition of mental illness. This part of the book is the most like an actual book, and it gives me the impression that perhaps Null had a contractual obligation to release a book, or wanted to release those first few chapters, so he threw them together with a bunch of semi-related, half-finished material and gave it a title he thought might sell the book.

Perhaps he dictated the book in a hurry and the typist who transcribed the tapes didn't have a very good command of the English language. There are many typographical, vocabulary and grammatical errors, as if the book wasn't edited or proofed properly. For instance: "Women will commensurate with Oprah, Montell, and Dr. Phil, their favorite soap operas and weepy movie..." (p. xiii). Gary, I think you mean "commiserate." On p. 102 we read: "Candace B. Pert, Ph.D., is mostly known for her discovery of endorphins..." That's wrong. Dr. Pert discovered the opiate receptor, which made the discovery of endorphins possible. In the Protocol for Depression on pgs. 114-15, I found two typos plus the following, which I've reproduced letter for letter: "B-complex, 100 (???? Mg or mcg), once a day." Apparently the typist was either reading Gary's copy or listening to his tape, he neglected to indicate whether he was talking about milligrams or micrograms, and the typist inserted "????" to indicate the need for clarification. Nobody bothered to edit the book before it got printed, and hence, a useless vitamin protocol. Rather counter-productive given the stated aim of the book.

If you're interested in a well-reasoned, political analysis of the serious flaws in our mental health policies, you'll enjoy the first few chapters. If you're looking for vegetarian recipes, there are many good cookbooks out there. If you're looking for seven, well-organized, methodical steps to overcoming depression and anxiety that you can follow with confidence, I would not recommend this book.

I have so many of Gary's books, that I didn't know what to expect. Lately, his books have become more and more interesting to read, as more of the truth is being exposed. In Gary's books of yesteryear, he had a tendancy to back off, and only give you the basics. Not so anymore.

This book is exceptional. I certainly haven't read anything as good on the subject. I especially love the affirmations section of the book, where he outlines 411 unique perspectives on life in general. They're not your basic affirmations that would say something like, "I am a loving person". They're truthful, insightful facts that you can apply to your life on a daily basis.

In the book, Gary also outlines what supplements are good for anxiety and depression. He also recommends juicing and detoxing the liver as a key part of overcoming these two common diseases.

Like I said before, it has to be the more informative, truthful book I've read to date on the subject. I would highly recommend it to anyone who feels a little down on their luck, or to people who have manic depression. You can't go wrong with this book and these recommendations.