Don’t Let Depression Get You Down
A Good Read for Great Moods
Book Facts:
Patricia Slagle, “The Way Up From Down”, 1987*, St Martins*
Outside of the Bible, very few books have changed my life. One such book is “The Way Up From Down” by Dr. Patricia Slagle. After being prescribed a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) in 2001, I immediately had a negative reaction with the anti-depressants. Fortunately, I didn’t take the medicines for long, but they still took a toll on my body and mind. While looking for an alternative to anti-depressant medicines, I came across Dr. Slagle’s book.
One of the things I loved about her book was that it was free. Dr. Slagle, who reportedly sold over two million copies of her book, makes her complete book available for download on her website www.thewayup.com.
Dr. Slagle’s book offers hope to depression sufferers who are tried conventional medicine approach to treating depression without success. She advocates a completely natural way to treat depression and has reportedly seen amazing results. The book is divided into four parts. In part I, Slagle discusses the horrors associated with depression. She gives several anecdotes of how people have struggled with depression and common misconceptions associated with the illness. While Slagle is a licensed physician, a layman can understand her writing. She avoids most technical terms, but provides enough detail to keep a fellow doctor interested. Part I continues with how amino acids, taken in high doses can have a powerful effect on the brain.
Part II of Dr. Slagle’s work focuses on life factors that can contribute to low moods and work to destabilize certain individuals. She discusses how nutrition plays a role in depression, how life events and stressors can make it worse, and how lifestyle changes can help in the fight against depression.
Part III is devoted to depression in the young. In this section Slagle addresses the occurrence of depression on young people, how to identify it, and the special care that should be taken when attempting to treat young people for depression. Slagle believes that using SSRI’s to treat depression borders on medical malpractice and this was the reason why she left the world of modern psychiatry. She notes that at one time, millions of Americans were taking Tryptophan for depression, an amino acid, with positive results. Slagle rejects SSRI’s (such as Prozac and its derivatives) and promotes a natural approach to treating depression.
In Part IV, Slagle discusses the importance of retraining the mind to engage in positive self-talk and avoid negative self-talk. She offers up many practical ways to do so. She also discusses ways to approach activity that is mindful and meaningful, allowing for the mind to be readjusted to function more positively.
While there are only four major parts to her book, Slagle added a new section devoted to her thoughts on modern medicine. In the last section, Slagle discusses the Tryptophan controversy and how Prozac entered the pharmaceutical market as a chemical substitute for what psychiatrists had been using a natural substance with which to treat depression.
As I stated earlier, this book changed my life, allowed me to take control of my moods, and got me back on my feet. It might do the same for you. A word of caution, however, is appropriate. Using Dr. Slagle’s protocol and taking SSRI’s don’t mix and can lead someone to experience serotonin syndrome which is a condition that occurs when too much serotonin is present in the brain. After all I’d been through with SSRI’s I was more than willing to give up pharmaceuticals for something that worked better and was natural. I’m glad I did and I’ve never looked back.
