When Nothing Matters Anymore: A Survival Guide for Depressed Teens

by Bev Cobain

Book Overview

"The most positive book on depression one could read ... should be available to all teens." - Voice of Youth Advocates..... When Nothing Matters Anymore a survival guide for depressed teens Everyone... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1575422352
• ISBN13: 9781575422350
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 13 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 12

Customer Reviews

Helps teens take an active role in beating depression

This book combines compassion and empowerment with accurate information. The author, a cousin of singer Curt Cobain, wrote this book to help make sense of her cousin's suicide. It is readable, knowledgeable and thorough. It helps adolescents understand what they might be feeling when they are depressed. It discusses how to interrupt the downward spiral and find a way out. The book covers both social and biological aspects of depression. I felt that the author had a good intuitive grasp for how an adolescent might feel when he was in the depths of a depression. She reflects back the sense of isolation and hopelessness so that a depressed person feels understood. She provides information on how to get help when you don't feel that anyone out there is trustworthy. She empowers teens by providing good information about the causes of depression and well as the treatments. For those who want more detailed information, she provides a resource list. I especially liked her section on how to stay healthy once you have recovered from the initial depression. I have recommended this book to several teens. They felt that it made sense and was helpful

Not Like Most

Of all the self-help books I found, this one struck me the most. Bev Cobain doesn't treat us like we're five years old or treat us like we're idiots for being depressed. She gives us help, and advice in an organized handbook like format. She steps this into two phases - What's Wrong and Getting Help and Staying Well. I also like how she makes it personal - adding things about her cousin Kurt Cobain but also including other depressed teen stories - proving I'm not alone. I'm almost finished with the book and am into getting some help for my depression. I'd recommend this book to any depressed teen, any school councelor, or any one interested in teen depression and want to be informed on it incase they stumble upon it sometime in their lives. Good Book -.

A Great First-Aid Manual on Teen Depression

A great starting point for teens who are going through unipolar or bipolar disorders (whether they are currently receiving treatment or not), Bev Cobain presents the complex issues at hand in very understandable terms and constantly reiterates the important points that depressed teenagers or teenagers who know friends who suffer from depression must take to heart. The little footnotes at the bottom of most pages are very helpful, just in case the reader decides to skim through or jump around the pages so that every necessary information is readily accessible. The useful diagrams and tips also give depressed adolescents a great way to take action immediately and perhaps feel some sense of accomplishment and progress (in fact the mood chart was something two of my past therapists used). The anecdotes, which represent teenagers each coping with different circumstances, put real faces to the more clinical aspects of the book and serve as examples of points made in the previous pages. There are a few holes in the book, however. Perhaps more information on the specific medications will have a reassuring effect on teens who will be taking them. Also, the issue of hospitalization was covered, but more facts about what actually goes on in them may have helped (although, yes, the experience differs with the quality of the hospital itself). Finally, a small section on the various personality disorders may help those teens who suffer from them because they share similar symptoms. Despite these questions, however, the book is an excellent aid for teens who go through what is often described as the "downward spiral."

A must-have for depressed teens

This book is a great resource for teens who are depressed. It explains all the biochemical stuff very clearly and understandably. It goes through depression symptoms and treatments, but it also offers practical advice on everything from how to start a conversation about your suicidal thoughts to explaining depression to your friends to "will anything good come of this?" There are personal anecdotes from other depressed teens so the reader doesn't feel all alone in her problems. I have found the survival tips to be invaluable in dealing with my depression. I reread part of this book whenever I'm having a bad day. This is a great book for people like me and I wish I could buy copies for all the depressed teens I know.

A self-help book for depressed teens and adults who care.

This book extends a compassionate, knowledgeable, hand to teens trying to understand the complex and frustrating dynamics of living with depression. Author Bev Cobain demystifies mental health terminology with staightforward explanations about the various kinds of depression and the difference between "the blues" and more serious kinds of depression that need attention.This is an interactive book where teens are shown how to take an active role in doing things to help themselves stay healthy. Young readers will find themselves in one or more of the stories told by eleven teens from many walks of life as they describe their struggles with depression. The stories demonstrate that young people can do something about depression and have hope for the future.Parnts, school counselors, mental health providers, physicians and others who work with depressed teens, will find useful, practical, information in this book. Any depressed teen luckly enough to receive this book from a caring, concerned adult will find comfort. Indeed, it may save a life.