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| By Danielle Paine Reminder Assistant Editor LONGMEADOW Local author, Dr. William J. Knaus, is arming readers with practical plans and strategies for conquering depression with his new self-help book. "The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Depression" recently became the 19-year Longmeadow resident's thirteenth book, one that he has worked on for more than 20 years. "I have literally gone through thousands of research articles for this," Knaus said. "It started as a workbook for my practice back in the 1980s for clients to take home with them. It just evolved from there." Knaus explained that he has discovered, through extensive research, that self-treatment for depression through self-help books, has been proven by scientific studies to be an effective treatment for certain types of depression. "Basically a self-help book can be as effective as therapy or anti-depressants," Knaus said of his research. On the flip side, he added that there are no quick fixes for depression. Patients, as well as their varying forms of depression, react differently to every form of treatment including medication, therapy, exercise, and self-help books. "You don't have a relationship or alliance with the book as you would in therapy," he said. "But you can take it home to reference things and see how you can apply them in several ways." In the publication, he describes how to address and change depressive thinking while taming pessimism through exercises such as poetry writing. Once negative thoughts are controlled, Knaus believes that mood and physical symptoms can improve. "In changing your thinking, you can alter how you feel," Knaus said. "This approach has been widely publicized, but over-shadowed by drug companies and their advertising of happy little cartoon neurons." Knaus is a licensed psychologist with more than forty years of clinical experience in working with people suffering from depression. He is now semi-retired and authoring self-help books from his Longmeadow home. "The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Depression" is available for purchase through New Harbinger Publications of Oakland, California. There are free excerpts from the book available at www.newharbinger.com\clients_pages\bookexcerptarchive.cfm. Knaus's essay, titled "Beating the Holiday Blues and Depression" is available at www.albertellisfoundation.org under the "essay of the month" category. |