Lost Connections by Johann Hari
$1.99
Lost Connections
- Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions
- By: Johann Hari
- Narrated by: Johann Hari
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Categories:
Publisher's Summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of Chasing the Scream, a radically new way of thinking about depression and anxiety.
What really causes depression and anxiety - and how can we really solve them? Award-winning journalist Johann Hari suffered from depression since he was a child and started taking antidepressants when he was a teenager. He was told that his problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate whether this was true - and he learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong.
Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are not caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains. In fact, they are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today. Hari's journey took him from a mind-blowing series of experiments in Baltimore, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin.
Once he had uncovered nine real causes of depression and anxiety, they led him to scientists who are discovering seven very different solutions - ones that work. It is an epic journey that will change how we think about one of the biggest crises in our culture today.
©2018 Johann Hari (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
Michael H
Some good ideas, a lot of incomplete science.
There is no doubt that many of the ideas in this book will be really helpful to a lot of people. People who have low to moderate depression will really benefit from this book. Sadly this book will not be helpful to people with severe depression or complex trauma. There are far too many places where Harri offers an oversimplified approach, for example he says if you have experienced childhood trauma, name it and you can move on. In reality trauma is much more complicated than this, it often requires medication to get people to a place where they can do the things he says. In some cases it requires months or even years of specialist treatment to get well. See The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk.
I am also concerned that a book like this would have the glaring omission of not talking about the importance of sleep, we have countless studies that show how poor sleep can trigger mental illness.
He says the Armish do the things he says and they are well. Yet a simple Google search will show that they do experience depression. Mental illness is immensely complicated and sadly this book offers fairly simple answers.
35 people found this helpful
Amfo
Interesting to begin with but went off the rails..
Author started well with the narrative constructed around carefully selected scientific studies. However, as the book progressed the author’s political views started to replace academic sources as the basis upon which the narrative was based. By the end I’d had enough of the socialism cures depression line being pushed. Antidepressants sure don’t cure depression but neither does repressive government intervention into every aspect of people’s lives which is what the author idealistically advocates.
19 people found this helpful