LET'S PREVENT DEPRESSION AND ELIMINATE "HARMFUL"MOOD SWINGS introduces the reader to a wholly natural physiological process that is easily used as a stress-busting practice, one which has been intentionally utilized as a practice by people since the early 1950's but not introduced broadly as a specific practice to the public—until now. It most likely would not yet be publicly promoted were it not for the fact that the seventy-two year old author, who inherited the vulnerability to depression/mood swings from both sides of the family and who at the age of twenty-three had seriously planned to kill a few strangers, was fortunately hospitalized, received ECT which was effective, and six months later survived a suicide attempt and eight month hospitalization in Vermont's state hospital, a hospitalization which also was effective due to the wise pharmaceutical intervention of the head psychiatrist and an excellent rehabilitation and aftercare program.Nearly five years after discharge, in 1974, while unknowingly in danger of re-hospitalization, the author was introduced by a friend to the natural stress-busting peer-taught practice that not only prevented re-hospitalization but enabled her to avoid again becoming clinically depressed or harmfully high. This practice she subsequently was able to effectively use while working with mental health professionals that she saw over a period of fifteen years. The book focuses entirely on the practice which is not revealed until the twenty-eighth page since few readers will easily believe that this practice could have such a profound effect on a practitioner's health and well-being. Taken from the book, the covered topics include:1. the practice of skillful emotionality and its immediate and long term benefits.2. the stress-busting process that I have already referred to as IT.3. our need to retrain our brains so that we can again employ this process successfully.4. the viewpoint that we all need to gradually adopt regarding the process's importance as it is attitude and viewpoint that will determine whether or not any of us use the process and benefit fully from it.5. the importance of including other stress-reduction practices such as meditation, prayer, exercise, etc., and not depending on this natural practice alone.6. a mini-questionnaire, sentence completion exam, and true-false test on your beliefs (attitudes, viewpoints, values) regarding the process—by then you will know what it is.7. deprogramming yourself (you will discover why deprogramming is absolutely necessary).8. the difference between feeling feelings and experiencing the process and why this is important to understand.9. the simple skills that will help you allow as well as intentionally activate this process only at the time and place of your own choosing (most skills are familiar and are easy to relearn and practice).10. a little about stress and the science regarding this process (in case you hesitate to experiment with the process unless there is some apparent scientific justification to do so).11. anecdotes illustrating how I use the process.12. a format that enables you, family, friends, and strangers to practice the skills together so that you, YOU, are in charge of your use of the process.What is this profound process that reduces stress in minutes, sometimes in seconds? It is the simplest process in the world, the one automatically used by human beings for eons. It is experiencing emotion deeply and thought-fully— through crying and laughing—using the warm and focused attention of others. The chapters in the book have been kept relatively short. They titles are specific so the reader can search more easily for topics of major concern. The author stresses the necessity of avoiding overuse of cognitive therapy approaches that enable one totally avoid experiencing painful emotions since desensitization naturally occurs. Readers are encouraged to obtain professional help, not avoid it. Read Less