11/17/2009

Review of Nature's Prozac: Natural Ways to Achieve Peak Mental and Emotional Health (Paperback)

I've been looking at books on natural alternatives to Prozac, and this is the worst I've seen for that purpose.

Believe it or not, the dozens upon dozens of ailments, symptoms, and therapies in this book are not organized in a logical order, but *alphabetically*. It really takes some digging to find what you need.

For instance, to get information about "depression," look in the D's. On the other hand, if you want to know about "the blues," look in the B's. "Sadness/despondency" is in with the S's. "Grief"--check the G's.

For that matter, if you're depressed, you might also want to check out "affirmations," "agitation," "alienation," "behavioral therapy," "cognitive awareness," "drowsiness," "escapism," "fatigue," "guilt," etc.--each in their own separate listings. You will not have the patience to do this, because this book is 500 pages long. Don't you think they might have organized this book better?

The title "Nature's Prozac" suggests that this book covers natural alternatives to Prozac, such as St. John's Wort. Discussion of these is inadequate almost to the point of being nonexistent. (St. John's wort is mentioned in a list on p. 217 and there are three sentences about it on p. 74.)

If you're looking for an encyclopedia of entries on non-medical therapies, buy this book.

If you're looking for medically sound advice for people with depression, the best book I found at my library was Murray's Natural Alternatives to Prozac (a bit old). I am also about to check out Bamuel's Dealing with Depression Naturally and Knishinsky's The Prozac Alternative.

Product Description
Can you remember one day in your life-or perhaps just one hour-when you were content and unworried? For most of us, that's hard to do, and many rely on powerful mood-altering drugs to just get us through the day.If you've been searching for natural alternatives, NATURE'S PROZAC is your definitive guide to achieving peak mental and emotional health with nature's medicines."More than anything in the field of mental health, we need lots of creative alternatives to drugs. Judith Sachs' book makes a major contribution in this direction."~Peter R. Breggin, M.D., author, Talking Back to Prozac and Toxic Psychiatry



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