7-Day Depression Challenge

Deal With Your Depression In 7 Days

Non-Fiction - Health - Medical
80 Pages
Reviewed on 04/17/2017
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

Challenge Self is all about proactive individuals who want to enhance their lives. Getting better at any area that you endeavor takes work; there’s no rewards without exerting any effort.

If you are dedicated to your goal, we will offer you the unfair edge that you need with highly practical, application-based methods that are sustainable and straightforward. People need to be able to retain the knowledge and techniques they gain well into the future, rather than referring to quick fixes that are sure to dissipate once the “high” of self-assurance wears off.

You don’t want to waste your time covering up the issue at hand, over and over again. Why leave a wound to scar when you can heal it away completely?

Being a self-challenger will light that fire under you, and you’ll soon be motivated to fully complete your self-growth journey. The point is to continue to love who you are and thrive in your environment well after you’ve learned how to do so, and our commitment is to provide that longevity.

Join the challenge at www.ChallengeSelf.com.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Sarah Rollins for Readers' Favorite

The informational book, 7-Day Depression Challenge: Deal with Your Depression in Seven Days by Challenge Self, is aimed towards anyone suffering from depression. The focus of the book is to follow the step by step guides by the author, including food and diet, meditation and mind therapy, sunlight and laughter, lifestyle practices and other techniques that will ultimately help sufferers turn their ailment around. As a reader, I felt the author was very thoughtful about the issue of depression, and has articulated a plan for those dealing with depression that is both realistic and achievable through the book’s instructions and information. What the author does well is provide a strong reminder of the importance of a balanced lifestyle and ensuring that focusing on depression as a condition is a multi-faceted approach and needs complete commitment.

The promise of 7-Day Depression Challenge: Deal with Your Depression in Seven Days also does not propose a miracle cure, and the author quickly states that all situations are unique. What Challenge Self, the author, does is help the reader ‘deal’ with depression quickly in a short period of time, but reinforces that the changes must be sustainable and focused by the sufferer. The book itself is a great self-help guide for those looking for realistic and achievable support for their ailment, and something that will reinforce the need to focus on many aspects of change (not just the one thing). I commend the author for putting together an easy to read guide that will certainly support those who are suffering from depression with a way forward.

TamaraM

I'll admit, I was a bit wary when I first got the book; the book says "7 Days" on the cover, and I was worried that the author might treat depression as a trivial problem that could be solved in a week.

Luckily, this wasn't the case: Right away, the book said that depression can't be cured easily, and it encourages its readers to read one chapter a day. Part of this is because reading 1 chapter a day requires the self-discipline needed to help yourself, and part of it is because depression takes time, so you need to pace yourself. Also, the book emphasizes working on the source of your depression, not just your symptoms, and I'm grateful for that.

The first day is about self-diagnosis. Steps include acknowledgement, identifying symptoms, gauging the severity of your depression, etc. There's even a handy-dandy little graphic there to help you out. The language and the steps are also pretty straightforward, and that's useful. At the end of the chapter, there's also an exercise. Overall, I think this chapter helps you be productive.

Day 2 was all about getting into the sunlight. I actually really like this step because it involves changing up your routine and appreciating nature and whatnot. (Unfortunately, when I read the chapter, it was raining, and it took seemingly forever for the sun to come out.) Anyway, the book gives you rules and exercises to live by. This chapter was really simple, and that was great.

Day 3 involved, as the book put it, meditation over medication. There were a lot of techniques, and there were even pictures of sample poses (although I personally don't think I'm flexible enough to do most of those...yet. I liked the variety of options.

Day 4 was all about laughter and smiling. There were a lot of suggestions about this, but the first one was "watch cartoons", which is probably my favorite piece of advice anyone's ever given me, haha. The exercise here was also pretty handy and gave me something new to think about.

Day 5 was all about food. I love food, but know almost nothing about it, and this chapter was packed with info about the best foods you can eat to treat depression.

The 6th day was for negative thinking. I've heard this advice a lot, but I suppose that makes sense. I will say that this book tackled the subject in a different way than what I'm used to; it offered an exercise to practice right away, instead of wasting your time describing why it's important (because, really, that's obvious).

The last day talked about walking. I'll admit, this chapter made me a bit uncomfortable (it pointed out my poor social life probably isn't the world's fault. I like living in denial, but this book wouldn't let me.) I did like the techniques here, because they were ridiculously simple while giving you things to think about.

Overall, the tone of the book was great: it was straightforward but not cold, and didn't waste its time being emotional or mushy (neither of which I would have tolerated in this kind of book, but maybe that's just me...). There were a lot of useful steps and examples.

Do I think you can really cure depression in seven days? Not really, and neither does this book (it says so in the text). If you expect to completely defeat your depression in a week, this book won't deliver. What this book DOES provide is a great job at helping you understand how to start your journey and help yourself in your own time, and I think that's the best anyone can really ask for.