Changing Our Minds

June 25, 2012 (PRLEAP.COM) Health News
What can a Tibetan Buddhist monk, a life coach and a family therapist tell us about depression that we don't already know? As it turns out, in the recently released
“>Changing Our Minds DVD
, quite a lot. These are just some of the perspectives, which are presented alongside those of leading psychiatrists, authors, counsellors and people who live with depression, that make up this fascinating and informative film on depression and dysthymia.

As Lawrence Price M.D. reminds us in the film, depression is widespread: 5 to 15 per cent of us will experience a major episode of depression at some point in our lives – and that's a conservative estimate. Whether directly, or indirectly through our family, close friends or colleagues, depression affects all of us. As well as the devastating personal impact of depression, it also carries a significant, and rising, cost to society as a whole. In the UK alone, depression is estimated to cost the economy £8.6bn per year through lost working hours, inefficiency and long-term unemployment. *

One of the difficulties in making sense of depression, and of dysthymia (a chronic type of depression in which your moods are regularly low, but with less severe symptoms than major depression), is that stigma persists around the condition and "experts" disagree over the balance of causes and contributing factors. For those affected by depression, trying to understand its causes, and more importantly ways out of depression, can be challenging in the extreme.

Changing Our Minds is an invaluable resource for anyone affected by depression, as it sets out clearly what is currently known about depression and provides a range of different perspectives, each with their own positive contributions to make. The DVD is highly informative, whilst providing the viewer with a much wider range of tools for tackling and breaking free from the hold of depression and dysthymia than you would normally find presented in one place.

This holistic, non-dogmatic approach to depression serves to inform of the key facts, whilst empowering the viewer by suggesting practical tools and approaches that can help them find their own pathway out of depression. Topics covered include how men experience and deal with depression, psychological and spiritual dimensions to depression, genetic predisposition to depression, the pros and cons of anti-depressant medications, natural healing methods, meditation and other self-healing techniques, and dealing with the stigma that is attached to depression.

Just as there are multiple paths by which people come to suffer from depression and dysthymia, so there are many different ways through and out of depression as well. Changing Our Minds provides insights and solutions from experienced practitioners as well as from those who have experienced depression themselves.


For those living with depression, or who are concerned about someone close to them, this film provides answers to many of the central questions that people have about the condition and about different approaches to treatment. The film helpfully presents a wider range of approaches for treating depression than you will find elsewhere, making it a must see for anyone who wants to inform themselves fully on the subject.