Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions (Unabridged)
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4.4 • 114 Ratings
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- $30.99
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- $30.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times best-selling author of Chasing the Scream, a radically new way of thinking about depression and anxiety.
What really causes depression and anxiety - and how can we really solve them? Award-winning journalist Johann Hari suffered from depression since he was a child and started taking antidepressants when he was a teenager. He was told that his problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate whether this was true - and he learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong.
Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are not caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains. In fact, they are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today. Hari's journey took him from a mind-blowing series of experiments in Baltimore, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin.
Once he had uncovered nine real causes of depression and anxiety, they led him to scientists who are discovering seven very different solutions - ones that work. It is an epic journey that will change how we think about one of the biggest crises in our culture today.
Customer Reviews
Enlightening
The author spoke a little fast in sections for me to absorb so there were a couple parts that I did replay to make sure it sunk in but overall it was truly a wonderv book to listen to. Love when it is read by the author too as I feel the message really gets delivered in the way they intend.
Sensational and misleading
The idea that most doctors blame depression solely on a brain imbalance and neglect to address any of the patients’ currents or past problems seems ridiculous to me. When I was put on antidepressants twenty years ago it was accompanied by months of sessions of therapy on my doctors instructions, which addressed my past and present issues with cognitive behavioural therapy. I don’t know anyone (and I have many friends that are either on them or are doctors) that has simply been prescribed antidepressants as a bandaid without thinking about how they became depressed. Either the author has only seen incompetent doctors or is tweaking an experience to suit the books theme. I could only get two thirds of the way through this book, it is too full of blatantly obvious ideas presented as breaking scientific news (trauma in childhood can present as depression and anxiety in adulthood - well duh!!!) and sensational, self serving fact bending. I would only recommend this book to those who really really really want to convince themselves that antidepressants are the devil. In my opinion, they can serve a valuable purpose alongside therapy and sometimes they save lives.
Lost for words.
Amazing. Don’t be deterred by the title, depressed or not. This is a fantastic, life changing, creditable read!
A must!