The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

Amazing book ,easy to read and understand how the brain works when depressed and/or anxious. Packed with practical guides on how rewire your brain even when it feels harder sometimes but practice is key.

This book is incredible! A wealth of factual information written in a funny laid back and easy for all to understand manner. It basically explains how much of the negative or depressive feelings we experience are out of our control and why this is. Then it reveals what we do have control of and how to balance things out in our day to day living. It explains small and simple practical methods to follow (even how to counteract those little 'I can't be bothered' moments) to re-enter that feeling of holistic well-being (not the usual change you life and personality to feel good again garbage that's out there). Just realistic goals everyone can achieve no matter how low they get. An amazing book bought as a last resort before the option of anti-depressants. I never needed them and I'm feeling fabulous!!! Check it out for yourself. Best wishes.

Helps you become aware of how little things do make a difference. No matter how little energy you have there are always something we can do to improve our situation no matter how tough.

Disclaimer: I'm still only slightly more than halfway through the book as I write this review, but Amazon has been badgering me for a few days... The first half of the book details the different parts of the brain that work together (or against each other) to produce the depressive state and the downward spiral, and it really is a fascinating read. While it covers some pretty complicated topics, it does it in a very light and readable way. The second half of the book is information on practical ways of reversing the downward spiral through small changes. As someone who has been struggling with depression for a long time, albeit without really knowing it, it has certainly helped me. The challenge is (once I've finished reading the book) to keep working at it using the hints given in the book and not slip back into old habits. Or, make sure I engage my prefrontal cortex to consciously monitor and control what the striatum is telling me to do automatically through years of repetition and habit, as the book tells me.

This is an excellent book. Have read it three times already. Alex Korb is a graduate researcher in Neuroscience as it can help with depression. The references in this book are a bang up to date survey of several key lines of research. Alex then applies the key practical applications of this new understanding of neurochemistry and brain architecture to prescribe simple exercises to re-calibrate habits, and over time shift the biases of the brain towards the positive. Excellent contribution to wider appreciation of how neuroscience is now at the point of real practical everyday benefit to peoples well being. Exciting times.

I found the first part of the book, about how the brain works, interesting and informative. Some of this was new information and as such encouraged me to read on. However, I felt as though I had encountered the information in the second part many times before - even the illustrative examples and research studies were very familiar. Obviously, this doesn't mean it is incorrect - just a little boring. Therefore as a self-help guide, I found myself skipping over passages. The themes of Exercise, Mindfulness, Gratitude, Social support were all touched upon (See contents in sample for full list). In short, apart from the neuroscience part, I didn't really learn anything new and was therefore disappointed.

Well structured book, uses great analogies for how the brain works in regard to anxiety and depression. Great humour and clear practical steps in how you can make simple changes to your life to help your recovery, also with tips to identify what will work well for “you” as we’re all uniquely different. Highly recommend.

Found this book very useful. It's both complex and simple at the same time. I will probably re read to understand better how the brain deals with depression but i found the advice on doing simple things to help reverse the depression very useful and when it's explained how doing simple things affect the working of the brain it helps because usually when you are it the depressed mode you can't see the points of doing these things, so when you understand why they work it makes more sense.