Stephen S. Ilardi, The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs, (DaCapo Press, 2009), is a must-read book for anyone suffering from depression.
The fundamental premise of the book is that “human beings were never designed for the poorly nourished, sedentary, indoor, sleep-deprived, socially isolated, frenzied pace of twenty-first-century life.”
In other words, the human body is not adapted to modern techno-industrial lifestyles. He gives the example of the obesity epidemic, caused by our Stone Aged bodies still seeking to store calories in fear of coming hard times.
There is an abundance of energy-rich foods, in a life with little exercise. In American 65 percent of adults are overweight due to both lack of exercise and the abundance of high calorie food, such as junk food, burgers, pizzas and other high carb/high fat foods. Hence, humans experience an array of diseases, such as syndrome X and other metabolic diseases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_syndrome.
The rate of depression in Third World countries is a fraction of what it is in the West, and countries in East Asia, which have rapidly industrialised, have experienced a corresponding rise in depression levels. Depression is virtually non-existent in hunter-gatherer societies such as the Kaluli people of the New Guinea highlands: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaluli_people, although they get up to other things.
The book offers a six-step path to reducing depression, via the “therapeutic Lifestyle change” (TLC). The six components of the program each have anti-depressive capacities.
They are an increase in omega-3 fatty acids, primarily through high quality supplements; engaging social activity, not being alone but interacting with people and stopping ruminating, churning over things; social support: having friends and not being isolated; physical exercise; sunlight exposure (increasing vitamin D), and high quality sleep.
The book details how one can go about achieving all of this. It is stated that the program is more effective than drugs, and the changes are all good and healthy anyway.
If any readers are suffering from depression, especially after reading some of the news items that we face each day, this book may offer help.