First comment: Eye-opening!

I would never have known to buy a copy of Lost Connections, nor had I previously heard about it.  However, last week, when I saw it sitting on top of a pile of books that were bequeathed to me by relatives who have recently visited, I decided, in my plight to diversify my reading, to give it a go.  If you recall from my second review this year, I do not ordinarily like self-help prose, but this book is well worth picking up and perusing.

A sufferer of depression from childhood, Johann Hari has done justice to the pandemic problem of mental health by thoroughly researching his topic and laying it out in a most comprehensive and cohesive way.  Traveling extensively around the world, interviewing countless people affected by depression, their doctors and many other scientists, Hari set out to uncover, “The real causes of depression – and the unexpected solutions.”  He has a most engaging writing style, even drawing in the readers who don’t suffer from depression, and he makes you want to share his findings with every person who struggles with mental health, despite being on anti-depressants, along with professionals who prescribe these drugs.

Johann Hari delves into depressed people’s disconnections from their work, other people, meaningful values, childhood trauma, status and respect, the natural world, and a hopeful or secure future.  He discusses the real role of genes and brain changes, and then he brings it all home by showing us how to make the reconnections most people, even the happy ones, have lost in the last several decades.

As I was poring over one page after the other, I’d often be thinking to myself, Okay, but he hasn’t considered x or y.  However, the next thing I’d know, the author would answer my thoughts.  This happens throughout the book, demonstrating to me that Hari is not only thorough when it comes to his work, but he clearly has a capacity to connect to people, one of the very solutions he insists is key to combating depression.

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