Book Review: Feeling Dismal? Check This Out

Anyone suffering from that dismal, disenchanted, disconnected, disenfranchised sense of worthlessness which we call “depression,” would be on the right path by taking time to pour over this book by Charles F. Stanley.

Emotions:Confront the Lies. Conquer with Truth (Howard Books; 2013), covers the gamut of emotional struggles ranging from rejection to despair. In so doing, the author offers his own personal story in dealing with the gremlins as he provides practical choices for confronting them.

Perhaps the most significant feature of the book is the model prayer at the end of each chapter. Writing to an audience which may be so crippled by dark thoughts that they cannot put coherent words together in prayer, he provides words for them which they can embrace until they are able to bring their own sentences to the table. This would be especially beneficial to men who live in a culture which does not give us the tools for verbalizing our emotions well.

As an added incentive to pick up this book, consider these words from WebMD.

Although men don't commonly recognize or acknowledge their own symptoms of depression, more than 6 million men in the U.S. suffer from clinical depression each year. Depression was once thought of as a "woman's disease" and linked to hormones and premenstrual syndrome. This stereotypical view still lingers and may be what keeps men with depression from recognizing it and seeking appropriate treatment.
The symptoms of clinical depression in men are similar to the symptoms of depression in women. But men tend to express the symptoms differently. The most common symptoms of depression in men include:

apathy / changes in appetite / fatigue / loss of interest in usually pleasurable activities / low self-esteem / sexual problems / sleep disturbances / suicidal thoughts.

 Women tend to be sad and emotional when they have depression. Men who are depressed, on the other hand, may be irritable, aggressive, and sometimes hostile.