Hope Prevails

Hope Prevails

Insights from a Doctor's Personal Journey through Depression

Dr. Michelle Bengtson

Dr. Bengtson is not only a neuropsychologist, but has also suffered from depression. She noticed that doctors rarely included the spiritual aspect of healing when dealing with a patient's depression. Since this played a huge part in her recovery, she wrote a book so that others could benefit from her journey. There are questions, prayers, and playlists at the end of each chapter that help make the chapter relevant and offer hope.

Pros:

I loved the cover. It's beautiful and calming. The author has a doctor's background as well as personal experience, something that all of us want when we go to talk to someone about our experiences and problems with depression. She is honest and open about her own experiences and how they shaped her. The last chapter shares some insights that deal with all forms of help, such as medication, therapy, health, etc. So the book isn't just touching on the spiritual aspect, but also the physical. The book is well written and the author shares stories and personal experiences to make it interesting to read.

Cons: 

These are my feelings, so in no way should take away from what the author is trying to accomplish. I truly hope this book is what others will find extremely helpful. 

It felt to me like the author was saying that a spiritual need is the basis of all depression and if we can get that aspect inline correctly that the rest of our depression issues will go away and we can "recover". This wasn't something that I could relate to at all. I clung to God the most and felt close to Him when in my darkest moments. I did not ever feel like the devil was whispering lies in my ears. My symptoms were mostly physical and while I knew that I was blessed and had a great life, I felt like my brain fog was not allowing me to enjoy it. This isn't the direction of the book at all. And so reading it was not helpful and actually made me feel anger and frustration while reading. I read this with a friend who also suffers from depression and she experienced the same thing as I did. So my recommendation would be to read this book with the mind set that some of the things might not apply, but there are some great take-a ways if you want to read through everything to get to them.

I received this book free of charge from Revell Reads in exchange for my honest review.