High Functioning – by Dr. Judith Joseph

Sometimes, depression doesn’t cause life to come grinding to a halt. Instead, it just results in being dead on the inside while going through the motions of life. The thing is… That’s not great either.

So, this book looks to help the reader break out of that, and back into actually living.

The route that Dr. Joseph outlines involves what she calls “the 5 Vs”, which are:

1. Validation: acknowledge and accept your emotions about past traumas and present pain
2. Venting: let out the frustrations and anxious energy bottled up inside
3. Values: identify the purpose and priorities that matter most
4. Vitals: slow down to listen to your brain and body and monitor the six vital signs of emotional functioning
5. Vision: plan for and celebrate successes, milestones, and everyday joy

…however, there’s a little more to it than a 5-point plan, and each of those waymarkers involves learning and putting things into practice. To this end, each of them gets a chapter.

Around this, we also learn about critical things such as realistic self-evaluation, trauma, anhedonia, self-sabotage, and—upon having implemented those 5 Vs—how to then continue forwards in one’s continuing healing journey.

The style is fairly light self-help pop-science, despite covering sometimes heavy topics. There are personal aspects to it (Dr. Joseph telling parts of her own story), and references to hard science too (bibliography at the back).

Bottom line: if you struggle with depressive tendencies, and/but it doesn’t necessarily look like it to others from the outside, then this book is quite likely the one for you.

Click here to check out High Functioning, and do better than merely functioning!