Rating: 
Summary: disapointed
Review: I cannot agree that the information in this book is what EVERY woman must know about hormones, the brain and emotional health. I was quite bored with it after the first few pages. I guess I thought I would learn something new and cutting edge. .................wrong!
Rating: 
Summary: Should be on the bookshelf of every female!
Review: I cannot express just how very important this book is to me. I would love to see this book not only in the possession of every woman, but also of every health care provider, husband, boyfriend, brother, uncle, son and father. Essentially, everyone on the planet needs this book. I'm buying several copies and giving them to the women closest to me, and I urge everyone else to do the same.
...
Rating:
Summary: Incredible and life changing book
Review: I found this book life changing. It has made me want to go help others. I am buying this book for all the women that I know. A lot of women go thru life not knowing what makes them tick, and who they really are. I think it is extremely important for a women to know herself, we do not want to be hurting our children. I would recommend this travel through our minds to anybody. I have learned so much about myself. These women are master-minds. I don't even know if I want to trust any other doctors now. They are extremely knowledgeable.
I think a lot of the medical industry does not know or care about womens biological make-up. Women need to be more aware of themselves because men certainely are not going to take this on.
(...)Women have a much more complexity to them than that, and it needs to be understood so we can move on and up in this world.
Rating:
Summary: A Physician's Review of Womens' Moods
Review: I found this book to be extremely helpful, visionary and most substantive. From a physician's point of view this is an exceptional book bringing psychiatry into mainstream medicine in a remarkably simple and clear presentation of complex biological and psychological issues to help foster an understanding of how simple but repeated stressors can lead to significant dysfunction. I will be recommending this exceptional book to my patients, males and females, their families and all my friends. Well done Sichel and Driscoll for what I see as the first book integrating so many of the vital factors contributing to depression!
Rating:
Summary: Maybe you're not just depressed
Review: I have just finished reading Sichel and Driscoll's book, which I selected based on the quality of journal citations from their bibliography. If you are a woman diagnosed with unipolar depression whose doctors and mental health care providers have ignored your full reproductive history, I strongly advise you to pay close attention to Sichel and Driscoll's many case histories of women with undiagnosed bipolar II. These histories show many Bipolar II's exquisite hormonal sensitivities manifest as bad reactions to birth control pills as well as hypomania triggered by antidepressants, but only at certain points in the hormonal cycle. See if the other symptoms and events (agitation, irritability, PPD) sound familiar to you. For any such woman considering perimenopausal or postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy, this book could be literally lifesaving.
Rating: 
Summary: Dr Sichel saved me, and her book can save others
Review: I myself was diagnoised with severe PPD by Dr. Sichel in 1988, I am thankful everyday to have found such a wonderful Doctor, who could finally tell me that I would be better. It was the most horrific time in my life and no one seemed to understand what I was going through, until my husband came across Dr. Sichel and we went to see her. It was 14 years ago but to this day I am amazed at how intuned she was with the illness and the problems women suffered with, such as shame, fear, worthlessness. It is a great relief to know that you will come out of the black aybss, and things will return to normal. For anyone who has not read the book it is well worth it, helping to understand the problem and knowing you are not alone is the begining to your recovery. Between Dr. Sichel and Jean Driscoll they have a most compassionate way about them. When no one understood me, they did! Hats off to them and to their book.
Rating:
Summary: A RAY OF HOPE
Review: I need not critique the whole book to say that it made me, a perimenopausal 49-year-old with hormone-induced exacerbations of bipolar phenomena, feel that there is hope! I'd been trying to explain it to my doctors for ages! The book doesn't promise a panacea, cure-all, one-pill solution ... because there isn't one! Understanding WHY I've had trouble is a good portion of the real help I've needed in my struggles. Knowing that finding a proper balance to all my brain and body chemistry, as well as psychological-, spiritual-, and physical therapy is possible afterall, and that to live in mental and emotional pain, burdening my loved ones is not my "lot in life" is a real ray of hope. The book doesn't end my search for answers, and doesn't let me just drop my problem in someone else's lap -- I'd have been disappointed if it came across that way. Review of the authors' extensive bibliography and other available material should help those who have harshly critiqued and judged this very helpful work.
Rating:
Summary: This is a MUST READ for virtually any woman!
Review: I read this book at the tail-end of my recovery from postpartum depression after the birth of my second child. It explained so much to me! This book gave me answers to all my "why" questions. It was extremely validating and non-judgmental. I understand, and therefore accept, so much more about this illness. I would say this book is a must read for any woman who has gone through PMS/PMDD, PPD or other postpartum disorder, perimenopause, menopause, used birth control or gone through fertility treatments.
Rating: 
Summary: A little tedious
Review: I thought the book was a bit tedious. The authors spent a good deal of time laying out concepts and brain chemistry and describing various psychiatric disorders. The portion on the wellness program, I felt was just skimmed over briefly. They also tend to spend a good deal of time addressing the need for medications and don't go into any detail about what might work for a person for whom medications have proven to be ineffective.
Rating:
Summary: A little tedious
Review: I thought the book was a bit tedious. The authors spent a good deal of time laying out concepts and brain chemistry and describing various psychiatric disorders. The portion on the wellness program, I felt was just skimmed over briefly. They also tend to spend a good deal of time addressing the need for medications and don't go into any detail about what might work for a person for whom medications have proven to be ineffective.
|
