Lost Connections by Johann Hari comes to mind.
I read it recently and it gave me some depth into the biggest question I had about depression – is depression "simply" due to an imbalance of "chemicals" in our brain? Can we just pop pills to feel better?
Johann shares his personal journey of how his ever increasing doses of anti-depressants never seemed to work and how he sought experts to understand the real causes and possible solutions for depression. You will read about what he thinks are the nine causes of depression and seven ways to counter it.
It really all makes a lot of sense, even to the point where it may seem Johann is stating the obvious. Here's an example: Trauma in childhood can lead to depression. That doesn't come as a surprise, does it? But Johann backs that up with rather in-depth research with experts, such as Dr Vincent Felitti, a doctor who was tasked to look into obesity, only to realise that it was not that these patients could not lose weight, but chose to keep it as a defense mechanism so as to render themselves unattractive - which is a response to their history of being sexually abused.
There are also great stories told such as how a neighbourhood responded to a 63 year old woman's notice that she was killing herself in a week because she could not keep up with her rent.
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested to understand more about depression.
You can find out more about the book at its website here: https://thelostconnections.com
