Skip to main content

A Friend for the Depressed


Book

Title: Why do I feel so sad?

Author: Dr Shefali Batra

Publisher: Jaico, 2023

Pages: 305

Having gone through extreme depression two times, I know how painful the state is. You feel you are the most damned fool on the earth, utterly useless. You curse the day you were born. You long for death. Worst of all, you don’t trust anyone, not even those who intend to help you sincerely. I trusted books, however. Weren’t they my friends forever, the only friends who didn’t ditch me at any time?

Dr Shefali Batra’s book, Why do I feel so sad? Your pathway to healing depression, is an eminently companionable text that I will recommend to anyone who is going through depression. The book is divided into five parts. You will get to know the theoretical and scientific aspects of depression in the first part. The title of the second part is self-explanatory: ‘Thoughts rule you, but when twisted, they could fool you.’ The subsequent parts take you on a self-re-creating journey.

Dr Batra’s approach is firmly founded on Cognitive Psychology which looks at our beliefs, attitudes, intentions and other mental processes which determine our behaviour. “We all respond to events or situations in accordance with what we think and feel about it,” as the book puts it. Miracle is a change of attitude, as I used to repeat ad infinitum in my classes. I got that concept from Cognitive Psychology. By the way, I did a postgraduate course in psychology from Indira Gandhi National Open University. Cognitive psychology caught my attention the most.

Dr Batra’s book can be an ideal companion for anyone going through depression. She is a practising psychiatrist with much experience. Each chapter of her book presents the theoretical framework illustrating it with examples from her experience before going on to suggest certain exercises. This is not a book that is to be read; this is to be practised. Put the exercises into practice if you have depressive moods or tendencies.

We live in a difficult world in which approximately 703,000 people opt for death every year. That is, one person commits suicide every 45 seconds. Dr Batra informs us that the number of people who attempt suicide is 20 times this number. What may shock us further is the fact that “suicide ranks as one of the top four causes of death among 15- to 29-year-olds worldwide.”

All these people actually do not want to die. They want to put an end to their suffering. They wish to put an end to their feelings of defeat, entrapment, burden, isolation, disconnection… When the number of people choosing death is so large, the problem is indeed very acute and deserves close attention. Books like this one are immensely handy.

“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever,” as Keri Russell said. I got that and a lot more inspiring quotes from Dr Batra’s book. This book can help anyone to make certain decisions, even if they are not suffering from depression. 



Labels:

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanMarch 10, 2024 at 2:43 PM

    Hari Om
    As one who's medical practice was fifty percent counselling, I commend and support this book choice! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Liz A.March 11, 2024 at 2:33 AM

    It is indeed a terrible problem. I'm glad the book was worthwhile.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

Coming-of-Age Poems

Lubna Shibu Book Review Title: Into the Wandering Multiverse Author: Lubna Shibu Publisher: Book Leaf , 2024 Pages: 23 Poetry serves as a profound medium for self-reflection. It offers a canvas where emotions, thoughts, and experiences are distilled into words. Writing poetry is a dive into the depths of one’s consciousness, exploring facets of the poet’s identity and feelings that are often left unspoken. Poets are introverts by nature, I think. Poetry is their way of encountering other people. I was reading Lubna Shibu’s debut anthology of poems while I had a substitution period in a section of grade eleven today at school. One student asked me if she could have a look at the book as I was moving around ensuring discipline while the students were engaged in their regular academic tasks. I gave her the book telling her that the author was a former student in this very classroom just a few years back. I watched the student reading a few poems with some amusement. Then I ask...
8 comments
Read more

How to preach nonviolence

Like most government institutions in India, the Archaeological Survey of India [ASI] has also become a gigantic joke. The national surveyors of India’s famed antiquity go around finding all sorts of Hindu relics in Muslim mosques. Like a Shiv Ling [Lord Shiva’s penis] which may in reality be a rotting piece of a Mughal fountain. One of the recent discoveries of Modi’s national surveyors is that Sambhal in UP is the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of God Vishnu. I haven’t understood yet whether Kalki was born in Sambhal at some time in India’s great antique history or Kalki is going to be born in Sambhal at some time in the imminent future. What I know is that Kalki is the final incarnation of Vishnu that is going to put an end to the present wicked Kali Yuga led by people like Modi Inc. Kalki will begin the next era, Satya Yuga, the Era of Truth. So he is yet to be born. But a year back, in Feb to be precise, Modi laid the foundation stone of a temple dedicated to Kalk...
12 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
15 comments
Read more

The Triumph of Godse

Book Discussion Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi in order to save Hindus from emasculation. Gandhi was making Hindu men effeminate, incapable of retaliation. Revenge and violence are required of brave men, according to Godse. Gandhi stripped the Hindu men of their bravery and transmuted them into “sheep and goats,” Godse wrote in an article titled ‘Non-resisting tendency accomplished easily by animals.’ Gandhi had to die in order to salvage the manliness of the Hindu men. This argument that formed the foundation of Godse’s self-defence after Gandhi’s assassination was later modified by Narendra Modi et al as: “ Hindu khatre mein hai ,” Hindus are in danger. So Godse has reincarnated now.   Godse’s hatred of non-Hindus has now become the driving force of Hindutva in India. It arose primarily because of the hurt that Godse’s love for his religious community was hurt. His Hindu sentiments were hurt, in other words. Gandhi, Godse, and the minority question is the theme of the...
5 comments
Read more