anglais, english, self-help, Herbal Remedies, Depression, pseudo science 

"Depression is a quest for vision; its essence is transformation," begins Wisdom of Depression, a book with a unique slant. According to psychiatrist Jonathan Zuess, "depression can be a natural and healthy response ... designed to enhance your abilities to overcome difficult emotional challenges." Half of this book describes natural therapies for mild cases, allowing the person's internal healing processes, creative life energy, and spiritual journey to flourish. Understanding the importance of dreams is essential, says Zuess: dreams may be our version of vision quests. Depressed people dream almost twice as much as other people, and enter the dream state unusually rapidly. Two other keys are learning to see with "the eyes of the soul" and expressing creativity.

Temporary depression, says Zuess, "can help us to dive deep into ourselves, to restructure our inner being, and come to a new way of understanding and living in the world." According to Zuess, depression only becomes an illness when it goes seriously wrong and doesn't resolve itself naturally, developing into major depressive disorder. In this case, he advocates a medical diagnosis, talk therapy, nutritional supplements, exposure to early morning light, and either conventional antidepressant drugs or herbal alternatives--all of which he discusses in detail.