Recommended Books for Understanding & Managing Depression

Whether you're navigating depression yourself or supporting someone who is, these books offer practical tools, powerful stories, and pathways toward healing. Click any title to learn more or purchase.

📚 For Adults

• Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns, MD
  A classic CBT-based book that helps challenge negative thought patterns and improve mood.

• Lost Connections by Johann Hari
  Explores how loneliness, disconnection, and societal factors can lead to depression—and how reconnection can heal.

• Undoing Depression by Richard O’Connor, PhD
  A compassionate and practical look at how learned habits keep us stuck in depression—and how to change them.

• The Depression Cure by Stephen S. Ilardi, PhD
  Focuses on six evidence-based lifestyle changes to reduce depressive symptoms without medication.

• Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
  A therapist’s memoir that touches on grief, identity, and depression with insight and humor.

• It’s Not Always Depression by Hilary Jacobs Hendel, LCSW
  Introduces AEDP therapy and how getting in touch with core emotions can create lasting healing.

• What Happened to You? by Dr. Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey
  A trauma-informed guide that explores how early experiences affect emotional well-being and resilience.

• The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon
  A deep, global, and personal investigation of depression—part memoir, part research, and highly acclaimed.

• Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
  A brief, heartfelt, and hopeful memoir about surviving the darkest moments of depression.

• Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown
  Explores complex emotions like despair, shame, and hope—equipping readers with language and tools for healing.

• Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach, PhD
  Blends mindfulness and self-compassion to help release self-judgment and soften emotional pain.

✏️ Workbooks & Practical Tools

• The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Depression by William J. Knaus, EdD
  A structured workbook with CBT tools to help reframe thinking and create lasting change.

• Mind Over Mood by Dennis Greenberger & Christine A. Padesky
  Therapist-recommended workbook for identifying triggers, changing thought patterns, and improving emotional regulation.

👩🏽‍🎓 For Teens & Young Adults

• Stuff That’s Loud by Ben Sedley & Lisa Coyne
  An ACT-based workbook for teens learning to manage depression and anxiety with courage and self-compassion.

• You Are Not Alone by Dr. Ken Duckworth (NAMI)
  Features stories from real people living with mental health conditions, including depression, and how they’ve found hope.

👨‍👩‍👧 For Parents

• When Your Child Is Depressed by Michael D. Yapko
  Helps caregivers recognize depression in children and respond effectively with evidence-based tools.

• Raising a Moody Child by Mary A. Fristad & Jill S. Goldberg Arnold
  A practical guide for parents of children struggling with mood disorders and chronic irritability.

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