Depression is a common and debilitating problem among women, but it rarely occurs in a vacuum. Instead, as Susan Nolen-Hoeksema's research has found, depressive symptoms often occur alongside unhealthy eating habits and/or heavy drinking. These three core problems together lead to and reinforce one another in a 'toxic triangle' that wreaks havoc on women's mental wellbeing, their physical health, their relationships, and their careers. Escape is possible, however, both for women who are already aware that they suffer from a serious problem as well as for the hundreds of thousands of other women who may be at the edges of the toxic triangle, suffering from mild symptoms of depression, alcoholism, or unhealthy eating. Eating, Drinking, Overthinking explains the problems created by these three conditions and offers practical tools that allow women to identify and avoid the behaviour that can lead to it.

Dr Susan Nolen-Hoeksema is Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and young son