About the Book
You feel that your world has changed, it's falling apart and beginning to crumble. You, therefore, alienated yourself from others and lost the joy of everyday living. You feel that your ability to concentrate is impaired, your decision-making slow, and your ability to experience pleasures muted. You are no longer sensitive and responsive towards others, and people don't want to talk to you because much of what you say is negative and pessimistic. Then you are more likely to be gradually experiencing some form of depression and anxiety; thus, living in two negative spirals, one breeding the other. Next, fear of fear itself will become an anticipatory ritual, building within you a feeling of doom and utter annihilation. And although your negative thoughts may or may not relate to anything real in life, the depression and anxiety are very real and painful. So, you decide to go see a doctor, who will most probably refer you to a psychiatrist. Hence your journey begins with the world of antidepressants and all their symptoms and side effects. For all you know, you may be stuck with them for the rest of your life. This book focuses on the reasons why a person may or may not choose to take antidepressants. As far as you are concerned, you may need the extra help if trapped in your dark moods with no escape routes. In fact, antidepressants may be your only hope to get out of bed in the morning each day. But what this book tells you, is that those magic pills come at a cost, and sometimes a heavy one; however, there is no shame in taking them. Many people around you may ask if you had tried anything else, like jogging, exercise, yoga, meditation, or eating healthy. Sure you did! But nothing seems to be doing the trick. This book will perhaps reinforce your doubts about the antidepressants riddle, myth or grand conspiracy, as some critics of prescribed medication refer to it, but it also spotlights their benefits, and they are many. Certainly, you have a genuine desire in you to restore your emotional wellbeing without relying on the brain pills and their unbearable symptoms and unusual side effects, but to walk down that path, you need to transcend your own sadness and fears first. And that's not an easy thing to do, although very much possible. Once you read this book, you will find that the journey of living life on the meds is arduous and sometimes grueling and treacherous. If you're already on them, you will know what this book is about. But if you're not, or at least not yet, then look closer within you for the answers you seek before you make that first step into the unknown. Believe me, it's okay to suffer from time to time; you wouldn't be human if this wasn't true! The focus of this book, and all the research by reputed scientists it's based on, is not simply on overcoming your depression, anxiety, and fear at some point in the future, but in acquiring the knowledge now on how to change your life for the better and maintain that positive state of mind for the rest of your life without trepidation of a possible rebound.
About the Author: Majed G Taifour is an Australia-based, award-winning journalist, the only Middle- Eastern reporter to be presented with the Pan-Asia Journalism Award by Citicorp in association with Columbia University in New York back in 1994. With two Masters' degrees in Marketing from the University of Sydney and Middle Eastern Studies from the American University of Beirut, he has been writing and more importantly reading since the age of 16. In all his writings, he obliges the readers, not the writer, and engages himself as their advocate, telling the story with opposing views, while decomposing the intricate to make it straightforwardly comprehended. In no way, he claims to be a literary talent, not even close, but he works hard to maintain his own distinctive expression, guided by the words of Andre Dubus "most of the time I feel stupid, insensitive, mediocre, talentless and vulnerable-like I'm about to cry any second- and wrong. I've found that when that happens, it usually means I'm writing pretty well, pretty deeply, pretty rawly."
