Queer Blues

Queer Blues is the only guide to focus on the triggers of depression specific to the gay and lesbian community and to offer concrete strategies to overcome them. The authors explain the many forms of depression and explore its unique impact on lesbians and gay men. If you're a lesbian or a gay man struggling with depression, this book offers you real tools for real change. A self-test helps you determine your own level of depression and assess its impact on your life. With this information, go on to explore the reciprocal relationship between mood and self-esteem. Examine your core beliefs about self-worth and identify self-sabotaging habits that may make you vulnerable to both insecurity and depression. A final section provides tested, practical methods distilled from the authors' more than twenty-five years of clinical experience to help you build a plan to effectively manage your depression.

Despite social and political gains, most gays and lesbians still experience discrimination, and many continue to struggle with guilt and negative messages from others. One effect is an increase of depression in members of the gay and lesbian community. Queer Blues explains the many forms of depression and explores its unique impact on lesbians and gay men. A self-test helps readers determine their level of depression and assess its impact on their lives. The book shows how to gauge the relationship between mood and self-esteem and identifies self-sabotaging habits.

Kimeron Hardin, PhD, is director of psychology for the UCSG / Mt. Zion Pain Management Center. He is an assistant clinical professor in the Departments of Anesthesia and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and an adjunct faculty member at California School of Professional Psychology and Pacific Graduate School of Psychology.

Marny Hall, PhD, has been a lesbian therapist, researcher, and writer for the last 25 years. She is the author of several books including The Lavender Couch: A Consumer’s Guide to Psychotherapy for Lesbians and Gay Men, Sexualities, and The Lesbian Love Companion: How to Survive Everything from Heartthrob to Heartbreak. She has also produced a video documentary, and has contributed articles to Out, Girlfriends, Lambda Book Report, and a number of academic journals. Marny frequently presents aspects of her work to diverse audiences, leads workshops, and participates in seminars worldwide. In 1998, she was designated a “Fellow” of the gay and lesbian division of the American Psychological Association “in recognition of outstanding and unusual contributions to psychology.”

The Intimacy Dance: A Guide to Long-Term Success in Gay and Lesbian Relationships, Permanent Partners Building Gay and Lesbian Partnerships That Last, Positively Gay: New Approaches to Gay and Lesbian Life, and Setting Them Straight: You Can Do Something about Bigotry and Homophobia in Your Life. Her autobiography, Surviving Madness: A Therapist’s Own Story, was published in the spring of 2002.