The Pages

As we travel together through these pages, you may want to consider that you are not what your present negative mood says you are: you are not the stupid, inadequate, hopeless, or unlovable person whom you believe you are right now. You're a human being, no better or no worse than other people you admire. You're as unique and as interesting as they are, equally deserving respect and encouragement. Don't expect to feel convinced of this at the moment. Even your choosing to read this book suggests that somewhere inside you believe that you deserve more. This book will speak to that part of you that wants more out of life, that inner voice that refuses to give in to depression. It may be only a tiny voice at the moment, but my aim in these pages is to strengthen that voice and help you discover a truer, healthier, sense of who you really are: someone who includes and makes room for personal vulnerability, but who never loses sight of his capacity for joy, someone you'd be glad to wake up to each morning.

How can we even aspire to achieve something so important in a short book like this? Let me say this first so neither of us has any illusions: nobody can magically take away depression. I can only join with those who are in this particular pain and help them to discover a strength in themselves to fight it. You will need to struggle and do battle with your inner demons of shame, self-criticism, and self-loathing on which depression feeds. You may be drowning under the weight of all this now and need a solid ally to help you fight your way back.

-Tony Bates-