Product Description
A groundbreaking, inspiring, and practical guide to healing depression without the use of antidepressants, from world-renowned, Harvard trained psychiatrist Dr. James S. Gordon

Each year, as many as twenty million Americans are diagnosed with clinical depression. Tens of millions more have low energy or feel unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives. And each year, American doctors write 189 million prescriptions for antidepressant drugs for these people. Dr. James Gordon, a Harvard Medical School-educated psychiatrist who founded and directs The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C., has been helping his patients find their way out of the darkness of depression for the past forty years. He has worked with everyone from high-powered Washington politicians to Hurricane Katrina victims, from overstressed doctors, lawyers, and stay-at-home moms to orphans from war-ravaged Kosovo and Gaza. Each one of Dr. Gordon’s patients is unique, but all suffer from some level of depression, and none are getting relief from the antidepressant drugs their doctors keep prescribing or the psychotherapy they’ve been receiving.

One of our country’s most distinguished psychiatrists and a pioneer in integrative medicine, Dr. Gordon believes that depression is not an end point, a disease over which we have no control. It is a sign that our lives are out of balance, that we’re stuck. It’s a wake-up call and the start of a journey that can help us become whole and happy, one that can change and transform our lives. Unstuck is a practical, easy-to-use guide explaining the seven stages of Dr. Gordon’s approach and the steps we can take to exert control over our own lives and find hope and happiness. Unstuck is designed for anyone who is suffering from depression, from mild subclinical depression (“the blues”) to its severest forms.

Dr. Gordon shows us how doctors and patients alike have come to depend on antidepressants, and how these drugs have disappointed so many. He then carefully links each of his seven stages to helpful suggestions for relieving depression’s symptoms. Using dramatic and inspiring examples from the patients he has worked with over the years, he explains the useful, mood-healing benefits of: food and nutritional supplements; Chinese medicine; movement, exercise, and dance; psychotherapy, meditation and guided imagery; and spiritual practice and prayer. He concludes each chapter with a carefully designed Prescription for Self-Care, guidelines to help each person play an active, effective role in their own healing. The result is Unstuck, an incredibly thoughtful, practical, and meditative guide to the difficult but rewarding journey out of depression. James

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 16 reviews)

I loved this book

Having been through a depression or two myself, and having had limited results with medication, I love the way this book approaches the subject. I think our society just relies too heavily on medication for an illness that goes so much further beyond creating a cure for a "chemical imbalance". I realize this may not be for everyone, and some people may really need medication to get by. For the most part, I am living proof that a depressed person can get better without medication, and lead a relatively happy. A lof of these steps I found out for myself and on my own - I only wish this book was around 20 years ago when I was caught up in the mother of all depressions. I highly recommend this for everyone.
September 19, 2008

Nice treatise, but a couple of troubling things...

I'm almost sorry that I read this book. On one hand, the author really put together a fairly comprehensive and well-thought out set of treatment recommendations. I have no doubt that there would be tremendous benefit to the wholistic approach of yoga, meditation, social interaction, improved diet, and exercise, etc. in overcoming many instances of depression - but not all. In the depths of gloom and doom, it can be difficult, if not impossible, just to do something as trivial as brush your teeth or clean yourself in the morning let alone find the strength to self-motivate and begin - as well as sustain - a progam similar to the approach described above.

The author further indicates that he typically obtains better results with a depressed patient after 10-12 weeks of therapy than he would have had the patient received anti-depressant treatment. I can't dispute his findings, but I do question them, particularly in acutely depressed patients. Of course, one of the main themes of the book is that anti-depressants are of little to no use, which is effectively throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It's just too extreme a reaction, in my opinion.

While I agree that they are certainly wildly overprescribed, I just don't think anti-depressants are useless. Moreover, I do not share the author's view that most/all depression has no organic basis and therefore can be treated by wholistic methods alone. One treatment method in the book, for example, was some kind of cognitive therapy where the patient was taught to avoid 'self-defeating' thoughts. I call that the 'Cancel That Thought Therapy', or the 'Don't Think of an Elephant in the Room Therapy', and as far as I'm concerned, it's a pretty useless approach - at least that's been my experience.

In summary, I do think that this book provides a ton of very good things that would enrich anyone's life. But in the case of seriously depressed people, I believe that anti-depressants may provide at least some kind of short-term intervention that wholistic methods alone (or together!) may not be able to. On balance, despite it's usefullness, I find it difficult to recommend this book unequivocally based on these criteria.

September 10, 2008

The organic solurion to depression

Jim Gordon's Unstuck is the first book I know of that gives away the store. To gain this insight in the past would have cost you years of therapy, drug testing and miserable years of life. In this book you get all of it summarized and explained in depth. By reading this book you can help yourself and avoid all the wasted time and visits to pill pushers.
Dr. Gordon is a genius and has shaken the industry that has grown around depression treatment to its roots. His writing is clear and careful as well as easy to read. Thank you Dr. Gordon!
September 07, 2008

The Most Helpful Book On Depression I've Ever Read

Having suffered from chronic depression for most of my adult life, I admit that I began reading this book with some doubt and trepidation. I have read many books on depression, including Peter Kramer's books and many others. I have been on several anti-depressants over the years, but found something lacking eventually with all of them. I have also tried counseling - got alot of insights, but still didn't feel quite right. Dr. Gordon's book hooked me from the very beginning...he has a very calm and considered approach to depression, and began the book with his very own experience with depression while in medical school. Finally - a psychiatrist who will admit that he too has suffered from this hideous malady!

Each chapter provides many meaningful and common-sense approaches to helping oneself through depressive episodes. I don't think Dr. Gordon is so much "anti-drug" as he is against what he perceives as the overuse and over-prescribing of these drugs as a panacea for all mood problems and negative life experiences, such as divorce or death of loved ones. I have already seen the value of some of his wonderful suggestions, especially the use of exercise and meditation in fighting depressive feelings and hopelessness. There is also a glossary at the back of the book with a list of numerous resources for the reader to use in trying to find support during down periods.

Thank you, Dr. Gordon, for providing this excellent book for those of us who know that the answer to our angst does not necessarily lie in a medicine bottle, but in also actively finding the resources and support to help heal ourselves.
August 20, 2008

A Great Alternative to Drugs!

After being on Paxil for 12 years it is nice to find an alternative to the over prescribed antidepressants. I gained 80 lbs. over the past years, and I feel worse now that I look so bad. The whole body/mind/spirit approach is something that I can totally relate to.
This is a great tool for anyone with similar problems. I feel much better after getting off of the drugs and using a different approach.
August 17, 2008

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