Taming the Black Dog: A Guide to Overcoming Depression by Bev Aisbett (2000)
Unlike 90% of the online population, I’m not entirely comfortable with exposing all my intimate, personal details on the web. I still believe in private and public, and find lamebook equal parts horrifying and laughable because of what people think is acceptable to share with their close and not so close friends and family. Reviewing this book is difficult in that it challenges my ideas about how much to talk about myself and what I’ve been going through – which are revealed because of why and how I came across this book. Obviously, someone doesn’t just pick up a title like this to pass the time on the public transit system or as a lighthearted beach read. So yes, my psychotherapist recommended I read this book because I, like so many others, suffer from depression.
Working upon Winston Churchill’s famous characterization of his depression as the black dog, Aisbett personifies depression as a dog. Written in as an easy to understand outline of the symptoms of depressions, illustrated by the dog character, Aisbett offers an unusually humourous look at depression. While reading it I was laughing out loud, admittedly also with tears in my eyes, at recognition of my own behaviour in this somewhat slovenly dog, cutely named Blackie. She recognizes the vicious cycles at work in depression, and offers the first steps necessary toward a recovery while at the same time making the reader aware of the difficulty in changing behaviour and thought patterns. I would have liked more in the way of guidance but understand that would be almost impossible because it is such a personal process. It is a lot easier to read about a cartoon dog changing his behaviour than it is to actually put that change into action, but Taming the Black Dog has given me another perspective on the suffering/healing process.
Then it was really brave of you to talk about this. I think, though it’s hardly any consolation, that more people suffer from depression in their lives at some point than don’t suffer, and everyone but everyone has something to contend with; a phobia, a fear, plentiful hang-ups and inhibitions. I think it simply indicates that you are an extremely sensitive person and goodness only knows this world wasn’t designed for the likes of us!
One book I very much appreciated on depression is Sally Brampton’s Shoot the Damn Dog (yet another reference to black dogs). She takes you through her severe clinical depression and ends up explaining how she dealt with it in some very helpful ways.
It’s still something I find difficult talking about, so thank you so much for your kind words. Love the title, Shoot the Damn Dog! I will definitely be checking that one out in the future.