Turning Depression Upside Down: a Review of Turning Your Down into Up

Gregory Jantz and Ann McMurray emphasize a whole-person approach to depression. Not everyone, they
state, comes to depression from the same root issues. Therefore, various routes to recovery are needed, not one size fits all.

The five areas of concentration in the whole-person approach identified by the authors are emotional, environmental, relational, physical and spiritual. They make a claim that this method has a 90% success rate. If true, that is quite remarkable and should encourage the average person struggling with depression to seek the wisdom found in this book.

A variety of helps are given by Jantz and McMurray. They cover issues such as relationships that may drain or fill, relational back stories that feed negative self-talk, nutrition and exercise concerns that can exasperate or lengthen depression and on and on. Self-analysis symptoms are listed for the reader to get a grasp as to if this area or   that one is relevant to their individual struggle with depression.

In addition, the book provides a few other helps I would like to highlight. One is that each chapter ends with suggestions for an ongoing journal. Another is a list of additional resources in the back of the book which are also referred to throughout. In chapter 11, The Personal Recovery Plan, the authors suggest a 12 week journaling of what the reader’s personal plan for wellness looks like in specific areas and then gives a 12 week detailed example of what that might look like.

At many points, I found this book to be quite helpful. It made me think of my own patterns of behavior. Though I’m not suffering from depression, I shared insights with family members, wrote notes and hope to review some of these in the near future. I would give it high marks overall. Personally, I believe it would be helpful to everyone reading this review or to someone you know and love.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Visit author's website for more info and a free copy of Hope and Healing from Emotional Abuse






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