• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FHE Health - Addiction & Mental Health Care Homepage

Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health Treatment

ContactCareers

Call for Immediate Help (833) 596-3502

MENUMENU
  • About
        • About FHE Rehab
          • About FHE Health
          • Our Staff
          • Locations We Serve
          • Testimonials
        • Our Campus
          • Gallery
          • Our Videos
          • The Health and Wellness Center at FHE Health
        • Our Locations
          • Alcohol Rehab
          • Detox Center
          • Drug Rehab
          • Mental Health Center
          • Outpatient Rehab
        • Careers at FHE Health
          • Employment Opportunities
        • Our Expertise
          • Accreditations
          • Educational Opportunities
          • Community Impact Award
          • First Responder Families Podcast
          • First Responder Paws
          • Education Scholarship
  • Addiction
        • Treatment Programs
          • Treatment Program Overview
          • Alcohol Addiction
          • Drug Addiction Treatment
          • Behavioral Addiction
        • Levels of Care
          • Continuum of Care
          • Addiction Detox
          • Inpatient Addiction Treatment
          • Outpatient Addiction Treatment
        • What We Treat
          • Alcoholism
          • Amphetamines
          • Benzodiazepines
          • Cocaine
          • Heroin
          • Opioids
          • Sedative
  • Mental Health
        • Mental Health Rehab
          • Mental Health Rehab
          • Onsite Psychiatric Care
          • Dual Diagnosis
        • Levels of Care
          • Residential Mental Health Care
          • Outpatient Mental Health Care
        • What We Treat
          • ADD & ADHD
          • Anxiety Disorders
          • Bipolar Disorder
          • Depression
          • Eating Disorders
          • Personality Disorders
          • PTSD
          • Schizophrenia
          • Substance Use Disorder
          • Trauma
  • Programs
        • FHE Programs
          • Specialty Program Overview
          • Restore (Mental Health)
          • Empower! (Women's Program)
          • Shatterproof FHE Health(First Responders)
          • Compass Program
        • Support Programs
          • Alumni
          • Family Support
        • Therapies
          • Acupuncture
          • Breathwork Therapy
          • CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
          • DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)
          • EMDR Therapy
          • Expressive Arts Therapy
          • Individual Therapy
          • Group Therapy
          • Gambling Therapy
          • Massage
        • Medical Care
          • Medical Integration
          • Ketamine Infusion
          • IV Vitamin
          • Fitness & Nutrition
          • Medication-Assisted Treatment
          • Medication Management
        • NeuroRehab Services
          • Neuro Rehabilitation
          • Neurofeedback Training
          • Neurostimulation Therapy
          • EEG Brain Mapping
          • Insomnia Treatment for PTSD
  • Resources
        • FHE Guides
          • Understanding Drug Abuse
          • Signs of Addiction
          • The Disease of Addiction
          • Confronting Addiction
          • Staging an Intervention
          • Rehab Success Rate – Does It Really Work?
          • Withdrawal Timelines
          • Life After Rehab
          • LGBTQ+ Community Resources
          • Veteran Resources
          • FHE Podcasts
          • Remote Resources Toolkit
        • Learning Center
          • Help for You
          • Help For Loved Ones
          • Help For Alcoholism
          • Help With Substance Abuse
          • Behavioral & Mental Health
          • Life in Recovery
          • Rehab Explained
          • Addiction Statistics
          • Our Research Articles
          • View All Articles
        • The Experience Blog
          • Addiction News
          • Alumni
          • Community Events
          • Expert Opinions
          • FHE Commentary
          • FHE News
          • Treatment Legislation
          • View All Articles
  • Admissions
        • Insurance
          • Blue Cross Insurance
          • Beacon Health / Value Options Insurance
          • Cigna Insurance
          • Humana Insurance
          • TRICARE Insurance
        • Admissions
          • Steps to Addiction Help
          • Will Insurance Cover Behavioral Treatment?
          • Self-Pay Rehab
        • FAQ
          • Keeping Your Job in Rehab
          • Example Day in Rehab
        • Contact Admissions
          • Contact Us
          • Secure Payment Form
  • Contact
  •  
Home > Featured in Experts > When a Loved One Has Depression: A Reading List for Family Members

October 31, 2022 By Kristina Robb-Dover

When a Loved One Has Depression: A Reading List for Family Members

Coping with a Loved One's Depression: A Reading Guide for Families

This article has been reviewed for accuracy by our peer review team which includes clinicians and medical professionals. Learn more about our peer review process.

When a loved one has a mood disorder like major depression, it can be hard to know how to love and support them. The condition—and its causes, symptoms, and effects—can be hard to understand. Sometimes mental health and life challenges can be difficult to navigate. Sometimes they can be overwhelming.

As a licensed clinical psychologist and the director of FHE Health’s Restore Mental Health Program, Dr. Michael Jochananov, Psy.D., has been working with patients with severe depression for more than 20 years. Dr. Jochananov’s clinical team also regularly speaks with family members who have questions and concerns about how best to support their loved one in treatment and beyond.

Often, with a little more education on depression, family members feel more supported, less stressed, and better equipped to help their loved ones; so, we asked Dr. Jochananov what books he’d recommend for families and why. Below is his recommended reading list for families who may be looking for more advice and information about depression.

Books for Family Members of Someone with Mental Illness

Mentall illness reading recommended books for depressionIf you google “books for family members of someone with mental illness or depression,” it will quickly become evident that there is no dearth of reading material out there. Much of it may be helpful. The challenge can be knowing where to start. If you’re looking for practical, how-to tips and tools that can help you navigate depression, Dr. Jochananov was able to recommend these books.

Feeling Great: The Revolutionary Treatment for Depression and Anxiety, by David D. Burns, MD, is an updated version of Dr. Burns’ bestselling book Feeling Good. Why is it worth a read?

“It addresses how people struggling with symptoms of depression are often depressed because they see the world through an inaccurate, overly pessimistic lens,” Dr. Jochananov said. “This book focuses on how to help the depressed individual challenge those faulty thoughts and replace them with ones that align more closely with a healthy and productive life.”

In other words, our moods and emotions are often a product of what we are thinking. This simple premise is at the core of a school of psychotherapy known as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which inspires much of the content in Feeling Great. Its case studies and CBT-informed tools aim to show that it is possible to feel better by correcting distorted thought patterns.

A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot to What Matters, by Steven Hayes, Ph.D., builds on principles from CBT and traditional behavior therapy to lay out its own unique approach to depression. “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy,” as the author Dr. Hayes calls it, advocates relating differently to negative thoughts and emotions—more in terms of acceptance and mindfulness.

“ACT suggests that you non-judgmentally accept negative thoughts and commit to relating to them differently through psychological flexibility,” Dr. Jochananov explained.

The idea is that acceptance of difficult emotions like depression and anxiety makes it easier to move forward with life. Typically, the mind defaults to “problem-solving” and ridding itself of uncomfortable emotions, but this can cause people to get stuck in their painful emotions and depression. Accepting the hard emotions, on the other hand, is an exercise in vulnerability. It is also a route to psychological flexibility and the liberation that Dr. Hayes describes.

Books on Understanding Depression

In addition to the how-to books, there are books on understanding depression. These titles are for those looking for more of a descriptive and informative introduction to the science of depression and its causes, diagnosis, treatment, and other related issues. Here, too, Dr. Jochananov was able to recommend a potential starting place.

On Depression: Drugs, Diagnosis, and Diagnosis in the Modern World, by S. Nassir Chaemi, is “not a how-to guide, but provides a global perspective on depression, incorporating biology, psychology, and philosophical foundations,” Dr. Jochananov said. New York Times bestselling author (S. Nassir Chaemi) is the director of the Mood Disorder Program at Tufts Medical Center and has written profusely on the topic, having authored numerous books on related topics.

There is much utility in this panoramic view of depression. It helps to contextualize depression, not just as a medical and psychiatric diagnosis but as a reflection of modernity’s unrealistic and relentless pursuit of feel-good happiness.

Books That Explain Why Depression Is Hard to Understand

Recommended reading list for depression 2Depression can be perplexing for anyone. Even for those who have had it, understanding how to love and support a loved one with the condition can be difficult, for more than one reason. Mental health stigmas can further complicate this challenge. Books that explain why depression is hard to understand may provide some much-needed enlightenment.

Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, by Rick Hanson, Ph.D., “guides readers to understand that many of our mood disorders are caused by disordered thinking,” Dr. Jochananov said. He briefly summarized the book’s definition of depression as follows: “All humans have a tendency to focus on the negative—depressed humans hyper-focus on the negative.”

Couched in this way—as the over-activation of a universal human tendency to be negative—depression may be easier to understand or empathize with. In fact, the book explains this human tendency to give more weight to negative thoughts in terms of our evolutionary survival. Our earliest ancestors needed to learn much more quickly in dangerous circumstances than in happy ones. That is why even today the memories and emotions that we attach to negative past experiences are more vivid and intense than the memories and emotions that we associate with positive experiences.

Hardwiring Happiness doesn’t stop here, thankfully. It makes the encouraging claim that we can change our brains for the better by, in essence, training our minds to be more present in those aspects of daily life that give us joy and contentment. Meditation is a tool by which we (whether the individual with depression or the concerned family member) can develop a healthier, happier brain. Dr. Jochananov said the author uses a four-step “meditative practice to ‘hardwire’ the brain to be more resilient to negative thoughts.”

“No man is an island,” the English poet John Donne once wrote, reflecting on the interconnectedness of human beings (although women and men do face different stigmas about depression). Something similar might be said of those with depression. Rarely does the condition only affect the person diagnosed. More often, close family members and loved ones are also impacted, sometimes in profound ways. Hopefully, this short reading list can be a source of help, hope, and understanding— and a reminder that there are many resources out there.

Filed Under: Featured in Experts, Expert Columns

More Questions about Treatment?

More Questions about Treatment?

We offer 100% confidential and individualized treatment

Contact Us

About Kristina Robb-Dover

Kristina Robb-Dover is a content manager and writer with extensive editing and writing experience... read more

Primary Sidebar

The Experience Blog

  • Addiction News
  • Alumni
  • Community Events
  • Expert Columns
  • FHE Commentary
  • FHE News
  • Treatment Legislation
  • All Articles

Sign up for the Blog

Our Facilities

Take a look at our state of the art treatment center.

View Our Gallery

Learning Center

  • Help for You
  • Help For Loved Ones
  • Help For Alcoholism
  • Help With Substance Abuse
  • Behavioral & Mental Health
  • Life in Recovery
  • Rehab Explained
  • All Articles
Contact Us
  • Call Now:
  • Best Time to Call:

Footer

FHE Health

© 2025 FHE Health

505 S Federal Hwy #2,
Deerfield Beach, Florida 33441
1-833-596-3502
youtube facebook instagram linkedin twitter
  • Contact
  • Careers at FHE Health
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
A+ BBB and Top Places to Work - Sun Sentinel

Copyright © 2025 · FHE Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care.

If there are any concerns about content we have published, please reach out to us at marketing@fhehealth.com.

833-596-3502

Text/Call Me