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Books are the best cure for depression
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Nowadays, depression is considered one of the most common mental illnesses, which can affect people regardless of age, gender, social status and environment. Each of us has experienced a feeling of oppression and hopelessness at least once. If this condition is associated with some external irritant, there is no need to worry too much, but if the feeling of hopelessness only intensifies over time and does not go away, then the symptoms of clinical depression are evident.
Scientists from the University of Scotland have been conducting research into methods of treating clinical depression for a long time and have come to the conclusion that self-medication with the help of specialized literature can be quite effective. Doctors from Glasgow believe that reading books aimed at providing psychological help and support can be more useful for the patient than taking medications for depression. The results of the recent study will undoubtedly please supporters of non-drug treatment and opponents of antidepressants.
People with a documented case of clinical depression were invited to conduct the experiment. More than two hundred people with mild and moderate depression took part in the study. Scientists divided the patients into two equal groups and conducted complex treatment with different methods over several months. The first method was based on treating patients with medication with antidepressants, the second was based on talk therapy, reading specially developed literature from the "self-help" series.
According to the results of the experiment, those people who fought depression with the help of reading, talking and self-analysis showed a much better result than those who "sat" on antidepressants for several months. The literature that scientists recommend as therapy is based on the principles of treatment with the help of conversations. Psychologists claim that a person is able to manage his problems, change his own thinking with the help of books.
Talk therapy has previously been recommended by specialists from the University of Australia. Scientists from Sydney have noted that cognitive behavioral therapy (a type of talk therapy) can have a beneficial effect on people suffering from mental disorders. Talk therapy has been recommended as an addition to drug treatment, but the problem is that many patients are unable to open up through conversation. The goal of a recent study by doctors from Scotland was to study the possible influence of books on the consciousness of people with different stages of depression. A positive result was proven by the fact that in the process of reading specialized literature aimed at teaching independent thinking and managing consciousness, it has a positive effect on the mental state of patients. Doctors are not sure that therapy with the help of books can be the only treatment for depression, but they insist on the use of books from the “self-help” series in the process of complex treatment, not without reason.
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