Perfectly Hidden Depression by Margaret Robinson Rutherford – A Review

Perfectly Hidden Depression: How to Break Free from the Perfectionism that Masks Your Depression by Margaret Robinson Rutherford, PhD
Non-Fiction | Mental Health | Self-Help
Published by New Harbinger Publications
Expected Release Date: November 1, 2019
Goodreads | Amazon
Rating:
ARC provided for free by Netgalley for review

I’ve written many times on Read Yourself Happy about my struggle with depression, anxiety, and my recent diagnosis of bipolar disorder. As far back as middle school, I was suffering from depression and didn’t receive any mental health care until 2018, nearly fifteen years too late.

When I saw Dr. Margaret Robinson Rutherford’s book, Perfectly Hidden Depression, available for review on NetGalley, I instantly downloaded it. Part of my goal for Read Yourself Happy has always been to promote wellness, specifically where mental health is concerned.

In this new book, due to be released in November 2019, Rutherford talks about an obscure form of depression marked by completely hiding your symptoms and being a perfectionist. Whereas with normal depression, people will notice your lethargy or increasingly sad moods, people with Perfectly Hidden Depression (or PHD, as she calls it in the book) outwardly show no signs of being depressed.

For people who are perfectionists, how others perceive you is incredibly important, and showing your vulnerability is not an option. You might hide your symptoms so well that even the people closest to you might have no idea what you’re really going through.

The book is perfect for people who think they might be experiencing this sort of depression and want to do something about it. Each section of the book is followed by a journal prompt to help you reflect on yourself and your own habits. I like that with a book such as this one, you’re able to move at your own pace and spend plenty of time on the prompts and reflections. There are also real-life stories about Dr. Rutherford’s patients and how they learned to deal with PHD.

I do not have what Dr. Rutherford calls “Perfectly Hidden Depression;” my depression is of the more typical variety. However, if you recognize that your perfectionism is causing you to internalize your depression and you want a way out of that suffering, I highly recommend this book.

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