Hand-Me-Down Blues: How to Stop Depression from Spreading in Families

A powerful, family-based approach to understanding and treating depression that goes way beyond Prozac

Many people have been led to believe that depression is caused simply by a chemical imbalance in the brain, and as a result they look to science for convenient answers, hoping that "a capsule a day will keep depression away." Unfortunately, this narrow focus on biology and the use of medications has often led people to overlook other important influences, such as how our families can affect emotional health in powerful ways.

In Hand-Me-Down Blues, Dr. Michael Yapko carefully describes how the family can play a crucial role in the development of and recovery from depression. Parents introduce their children to various life experiences and inevitably reveal their own values, perspectives, and biases. Children typically learn to interpret life events in the same way their parents do, and their interpretations can be a basis for depression. Once depression strikes, it distorts family relationships, splintering families as it spreads from one person to another like a virus. Thus, children can "inherit" depression less from their parents' genes and more from their parents' attitudes and behaviors.


About the Author

Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and marriage and family therapist in private practice who lectures worldwide on the subject of depression. He is a member of the American Psychological Association and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and a Fellow in both the Royal Society of Medicine in England and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He lives with his wife near San Diego, California.