Making Friends with Depression: A warm and wise companion to recovery

If you're suffering from depression or very low mood, you can end up feeling alone, desperately struggling to find a way through - but recovery is possible and, in Making Peace with Depression, bestselling authors Sarah Rayner and Kate Harrison, together with GP Dr Patrick Fitzgerald show you how. They explain that hating or fighting depression can actually prolong your suffering, whereas 'making friends' with difficult emotions by compassionately accepting these feelings can restore health and happiness.

Sarah (Making Friends with Anxiety) and Kate (The 5:2 Diet Book) write with candour, compassion and humour about lifting low mood and easing symptoms because they’ve both experienced – and recovered from – depression themselves, while GP Dr Patrick Fitzgerald draws on his clinical understanding to offer practical advice on treatment options and finding support. The book explores:

* The different types of depressive illness

* Where to seek help and how to get a diagnosis

* The pros and cons of the most commonly-prescribed medications

* The different kinds of therapy available

* Why depression can cause so many physical symptoms

* What to do if you suffer suicidal thoughts

* How to stop the spiral of negative thinking and boost self-esteem

* Evidence-based steps to improve mental health and avoid relapse Fully illustrated and reflecting the latest National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines, Making Peace with Depression is succinct and surprisingly uplifting.The result is book that doesn't shy away from the distress that depression can cause, but is packed with simple tips that are easy to implement thereby offering hope and guidance through the darkest of times.

PRAISE FOR MAKING FRIENDS WITH ANXIETY: 'Reads like chatting with an old friend; one with wit, wisdom and experience' Brighton and Hove Independent

PRAISE FORTHE 5:2 DIET BOOK: ‘The go-to 5:2 bible... Inspiring, motivational, simple’ Women’s Fitness

Sarah Rayner (www.sarah-rayner.com) is the author of the international bestseller, 'One Moment, One Morning' (2010), and 'The Two Week Wait' (2012) and 'Another Night, Another Day' (2014), which all feature her Brighton-based characters. She lives in Brighton herself, in a little blue house, with her husband, her stepson and a couple of cats. As a novelist, Sarah is known for tackling difficult subjects such as bereavement, infertility and mental illness with empathy and insight, but her latest venture has been a series of non-fiction self-help books under the 'Making Friends...' umbrella, which are published through her small press, Creative Pumpkin Publishing (www.creativepumpkinpublishing.com). The first, 'Making Friends with Anxiety' (2014) is a warm, supportive little book to help ease worry and panic, and its success led Sarah to pen a follow-up, 'More Making Friends with Anxiety' which focuses on gentle activities that can help ease stress, and 'Making Friends with Anxiety: A Calming Colouring Book' which is illustrated by Jules Miller. She has has also written 'Making Friends with the Menopause', a clear, comforting guide to support you as your body changes' in collaboration with Dr Patrick Fitzgerald, and has just published 'Making Friends with Depression: A warm and wise companion to support you through dark times' which is co-written by bestselling author Kate Harrison and Dr Patrick Fitzgerald. In addition Sarah has written two more light-hearted novels - 'The Other Half' and 'Getting Even'. Originally published in the early noughties, these have been fully revised and updated by the author and are now available on Amazon. To find out more about Sarah or get in touch, please visit her website, www.sarah-rayner.com. Please don't be shy - she enjoys hearing from her readers.

Kate Harrison is the author of 17 fiction and non-fiction books, including The 5:2 Diet Book, The Secret Shopper's Revenge, and the Soul Beach trilogy for teenagers. Find out more and get in touch at www.the5-2dietbook.com and www.kate-harrison.com - and sign up for Kate's newsletter to receive free diet tips, ebooks, writing tips and competitions. Kate was born in north-west England, and moved home more than a dozen times as a child. Despite writing many 'novels' at school (including a four-part thriller set in Paris), her careers officer told her she'd never make a living from stories, so instead she became a journalist at the BBC, working on news and current affairs programmes including Newsround and Panorama. In 2003, she proved her careers teacher wrong, and published her first novel, Old School Ties. Since then, she's written more novels for adults (including The Secret Shopper series about undercover shopping, and The Boot Camp about extreme fitness!). Her thriller series for teenagers, Soul Beach, is creepier and more chilling, with a murder mystery and a frightening website to be explored (www.soulbeach.org). Her latest ebook novel is A Batch Made in Heaven, a story of love, London and baked goods... In 2012, Kate set up a Facebook group with friends following a fasting diet, and later that year, she combined her own experiences and recipes, plus the group members' own tips, in The 5:2 Diet Book, which became a Kindle and print bestseller, and has now been published all over the world. Her Ultimate 5:2 Recipe Book contains delicious recipes and meal plans, plus stories from people whose lives have been transformed by intermittent fasting. In 2013, she published 5:2 Your Life, which explores how making tiny changes on just two days each week can make you happier as well as healthier! And in 2015, her latest recipe book, 5:2 Good Food Kitchen was published, with great meals for both fast and non-fasting days, plus Making Sense of... a guide to understanding diet research, myths and advice. In 2016, she worked with fellow author and friend, Sarah Rayner, on Making Friends with Depression, a guide to recovery from the blues, based on personal experiences and research. Kate loves to cook, to read and to travel. She's lived in the Netherlands and Spain, before settling by the seaside in Brighton.

Dr Patrick Fitzgerald MB.BS MRCGP Diploma in Palliative Medicine Patrick is a General Practitioner working in Cheshire, England. He studied medicine in London and became a GP in 2007. He has a special interest in cancer and palliative care and has worked as a GP educator for Macmillan Cancer Care, in hospices and with community and hospital palliative care teams. He is an advocate of patient-centred care, focusing on shared decision-making with patients. He feels the role of the GP is as medical translator and advisor, communicator, and, mostly, listener.