Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions

Johann Hari

Jan 2018 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

About this ebook

The New York Times bestseller from the author of Chasing the Scream, offering a radical new way of thinking about depression and anxiety.

What really causes depression and anxiety--and how can we really solve them? Award-winning journalist Johann Hari suffered from depression since he was a child and started taking antidepressants when he was a teenager. He was told that his problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate whether this was true-and he learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong.

Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are not caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains. In fact, they are largely caused by key problems with the way we live today. Hari's journey took him from a mind-blowing series of experiments in Baltimore, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin. Once he had uncovered nine real causes of depression and anxiety, they led him to scientists who are discovering seven very different solutions--ones that work.

It is an epic journey that will change how we think about one of the biggest crises in our culture today. His TED talk, “Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong,” has been viewed more than eight million times and revolutionized the global debate. This book will do the same.

Ratings and reviews

Nothing groundbreaking but its laid out well enough to keep you engaged until the very end. The root of our depression and anxiety is not feeling connected to others. Until we work and strive toward causes greater than ourselves within our communities and beyond can we achieve a sense of mission and personal fulfillment.

I enjoyed most of this book. I thought in some cases, there were too few examples that were stretched thin to support a more general point.

A couple of weeks ago I got the preview of the book, and then I came back to get the full copy. Curious as to why "this item is not for sale in your country"? This is Canada, not [insert politically incorrect, censor-friendly country here]. I've given this a 1/5 review not because of the book, but rather because I can't get it anymore with no forewarning.

About the author

Johann Hari is the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream. He was a columnist for the Independent in London for nine years and was twice named Newspaper Journalist of the Year by Amnesty International UK. He has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Le Monde, and others.