How to Beat the Blahs
Littauer
1979
As a long sufferer of the “blahs”, this book is beyond awful. For the time, this was probably how most folks thought about depression. Basically, with a little lipstick and a new outfit, you can beat depression. You just need to grab those bootstraps and pull your self up!
This is a great example of why we weed. More than a few times in my career, I have helped people who are in trouble. Be that a job loss, scary medical diagnosis and assorted other human problems. I think those of us,especially public libraries, believe that helping people sort through or manage problems is why libraries exist. Bottom line, I don’t want patrons depending on this to help them through a potentially life threatening illness with this little book. Trust me, weeding medical stuff will chase those library blahs away. Â <updates lipstick and grabs a cart>
Mary
I wonder if this book is not so much addressing “depression” as in the medical diagnosis (which my child suffers from), as the “depression” we all feel from time to time. The examples are caused by life events (heavy on the husband leaving) which leave us depressed, but not suffering from depression. Oh, that sounds very unclear!
It’s like my mother said when my son was diagnosed, “What does he have to be depressed about? He just got married.” She didn’t understand the difference between the medical diagnosis and being blue once in a while.
Regardless of what they mean by “depression” in this book, it doesn’t look like a very helpful one!
Whoa, that story about the woman whose husband left her is essentially blaming her – “When she stops snivelling maybe he will come back.” Ugh. No.
I think I got a bad case of the Blahs just looking at this book.
I clicked the link to the Self-Help for your Nerves book and noticed that the publisher’s name is “Isis”. If they’re still doing business, I bet they’re looking to change their name right now …
(I wish you’d keep your comments feature for each book open indefinitely: I’d love to see what new comments would be added for your Bruce Jenner book, now that Bruce is no more, and long live Caitlyn)
Nah, Isis is an Egyptian goddess…makes sense to publish works on women’s issues with that name. ISIL will n’er be that immortal or powerful.
Egyptian goddess or no Egyptian goddess, Islamic State have pretty much ruined the name “Isis” at least for now. I was watching an episode of Chopped on the Food Network, and one of the competing chefs had two daughters named Electra and Isis. I thought, that guy better change her name to Athena or Minerva or something. And let’s just call the terrorists “Daesh”: Europeans use that name, and the IS HATE it
One more thing I just remembered: the “Isis” on that “help for your nerves” book probably comes from the Oxford local name for their stretch of the Thames (the Latin name for the river is “Tamesis” and both “Thames” and “Isis” probably derive therefrom). End of digression and we now return you to your comments on THIS book
that damn Archer!
And yet shysters like Dr. Phil make millions on this tripe….
Way to trivialize a potentially life-threatening medical condition. Calling depression “the blahs” is basically like calling double pneumonia “the sniffles”.
Love that quote about the gal who lost, what- 30 pounds? – and said the word overweight didn’t make her think she should lose weight but being called fat did – she didn’t want to be “fat“. Sheesh. Anybody called me fat would see any of me, except my backside leaving them on their own skinny ass.
I’m totally mystified by “she was so immense that she was placed in a reducing sanatorium for a month of deprogramming.”
Like, when you hit a certain size, the fat cops show up and truck you off?
“she was determined to sit there, chubby, with her own black cloud …”
Or maybe she was depressed BEFORE he left, and he deserted her in a time of need.
First commenter Lisa’s right; there’s a difference between the boredom, restlessness, and disappointment that this book is meant to alleviate, and clinical depression, which is a serious illness. It’s not clear the book ever distinguishes between them.
This was before Prozac. As someone currently on Prozac, I say this is definitely not a helpful book.
That one guy who came back to his wife and said “Once she stopped sniveling and pleading and pulled herself together, I could see that there was hope so I came back.”-what a jerk!