I Had a Black Dog Flexibound – May 24, 2007

I reviewed the companion book to this one and it is pretty much the same. This is a good simplistic version of depression. The only thing I did not like was the indication that this would get better and go away. As a person with treatment resistant depression, that’s not always the case. It’s a very good intro otherwise.

Than you for a very insightful, true description of depression. I have been a long term sufferer of depression & anxiety. Thanks to medication and lifestyle changes and self awareness, I am able to live a happy productive life.My husband and family support have been a great strength and inspiration for my wellness.I now work in a Mental Health facility and am passing on this awesome as part of my resource and self help methods for people who wish to use it. Thank you again. Yours in community spirit and friendship always Sonya Parsons.

I love this book. I have depression and read this book regularly because it's a short read and I love the illustrations. I've shown this book to my family and partner and they read it and felt like it was a step to understanding my illness.

Everyone should read this book. It can help people without depression understand what people with depression go through.

This book provides great visualisation of depression with plenty of wit to make the reader learn what this invisible troublemaker is.A great read for all ages

A useful tool to help understand the world of those suffering with depression. A picture speaks a thousand words, and this portrays what so many long articles seek to cover.

An excellent and practical work with all the key messages delivered with great insight, sensitivity and humour. The presentation makes it ideal for any coffee table to bring the subject of depression into mainstream society in an accessible and approachable format. I recommend this and its companion: Living with a Black Dog.

The book is a cute way to describe depression, but I don't think it is really helpful. It may be something to show family or friends but I don't think anyone will get the seriousness of depression from it.

Suffering from depression is a really difficult thing to express or explain to people, having been in therapy groups this book came up as a way of showing what depression feels like to people.I also really struggle to talk about things but this is an excellent way of doing this, it is really well put together and for me is a great way of trying to understand for both what is depression, so I can start to deal with this and for my family to understand.If you feel my review was helpful please mark it as helpful or if you have any questions please do not hesitate to leave a comment.

The title of this book is "I HAD a black dog" rather than "I HAVE a black dog" which is odd because at the end Matthew Johnstone makes it clear that his book is about taming the black dog and making it walk to heel. He even says that his black dog "may" be always be part of his life and by embracing it he has learnt to re-evaluate and simplify his life. I assume the use of the past tense is to instill hope that depressive episodes can and do pass.My wife bought me this book, and herself the companion book "Living with a black dog", ten years ago during a particularly bad depressive episode I was experiencing at the time. I am lucky, (I suppose) my depression responds well to medication and I have managed to stay well on a combination of Prozac, lifestyle changes, and the love and understanding I get from my dear long suffering wife who has worked tirelessly to challenge my negative thinking and build my self esteem over the past 16 years since we first met.Recently, (now in fact), the Black Dog has returned. I know with the help of my wife, my own innate good sense and and determination as well as my GP's prescribing! I will bring my Black Dog to heel again. But in the dark hours before the dawn when doubts are at there worst I find myself reaching for this book. It's calm humour, good sense, and imagination have nailed the experience of depression for me at least. I recognise myself in its pages and its message gives me hope when I need it most. I had a Black Dog has spent the past ten years on a series of book shelves, unloved and largely unread but I am so glad I didn't throw it out or take it to the charity shop like so many other books past their sale by date.Like most of the other reviewers of this book I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I'm having a bad time at present, and this book was recommended to me by my councillor. I'm not sorry I followed her advice, and I purchased this book via the kindle format. The parallels between what the author has gone through with depression, and my own experience of it is both amazing and in a way reassuring. Matthew has 'been there, done that and got the t'shirt' with this condition. The illustrations 'personify' so many aspects of this wretched condition, those illustrations along with Matthew's text, has helped to raise my spirits whenever I dip into the book. Because those of us suffering depression exhibit very little or no visible signs of the condition, it's sometimes hard for non sufferers to understand the destructive effects depression can have on your daily life. This book is no 'quick fix' for the condition, because there isn't one, but I'm finding this book a valuable addition to my 'anti depression arsenal' I can't recommend this book highly enough. Thank you Matthew.

Excellent book that accurately and emotively describes the experience of depression. Wonderful concept and well executed. A must read for anyone suffering with depression and useful for family to get (literally) a picture of what it experience the all consuming feeling of depression. For those who want their families/partners to understand the experience, I recommend Mathew Johnstone's second book, "living with a black dog" that was co-written with his wife, to express not just her experiences of her husbands journey, but her feelings too.

If you suffer from serious depression or if you live with someone who does this short picture book will help articulate what goes on inside. I would recommend this book to both groups of people. It won't cost you a load of money, nor will it take a huge long time to read; it's not medical - but in a few pages it will give you insights you may have not had. As a picture book, it's also incredibly useful for explaining to children what's going on with Mummy or Daddy, although please don't think of it as a child's book, it's not its for everyone.Often it's tricky for people who don't have depression to understand or appreciate what's going on inside the head of someone who does. In trying to help they will tell the depressed person to 'snap out of it', or 'it'll blow over...' It doesn't and neither of those things help the seriously depressed person. Equally, people suffering from depression have a hard time describing how they are feeling; one of the strengths of this book is that they can point to the page that shows how they feel without having to go for a long explanation.There is a companion book  Living with a Black Dog  that is more helpful in my opinion, if you are living with a depressed person. In that the author describes, again with pictures, what the carer of someone can do. Of the two I found Living with a Black Dog to be the more useful as a carer, in fact the person I care for brought it for me as a way of telling me what she needed.Recommended Living with a Black Dog