Aaron Hoover is the Ministries Pastor at Traders Point Christian Church in Indianapolis. He has lived with anxiety and depression for about twenty years, including a period of suicidal thoughts. Anxiety, Depression, and Jesus: Finding Hope in All Things is his account of that, written for people who are in it now.
One detail the product page does not make obvious: this is a WestBow Press title. WestBow is the assisted publishing arm connected to Thomas Nelson, which means the author paid to produce it rather than being acquired by a traditional publisher. That is not a knock on the content. It does mean the book had less editorial shaping than a house-acquired title, and you can feel that in places.
What it does
The core of the book is Hoover telling the truth about what those two decades were actually like, including the parts men usually leave out. He is a pastor. He was preaching while this was happening. He names the specific pressure of being the person other people bring their crises to while you are quietly drowning.
He also takes on the way churches handle this badly. The advice to pray harder. The suggestion that depression is a faith problem. The implication that a Christian who is still struggling has not surrendered enough. Hoover has heard all of it and he answers it directly.
What it is not
This is not clinical treatment and it does not pretend to be. If you are in crisis, this book is not a substitute for a doctor or a licensed counselor, and Hoover would say the same.
An earlier version of this review credited the book with reflection questions and a study structure. I could not confirm either. Check the Amazon preview before buying it for a group.
Some readers have found the book repetitive. That is a fair criticism. The message circles back on itself, partly because that is how the experience works and partly because a tighter edit would have caught it.
Why it matters here
Men are worse than women at asking for help with this, and church culture for men often makes it harder rather than easier. A book by a pastor who says out loud that he wanted to die, and is still pastoring, and still believes, does something a clinical resource cannot. It removes the shame that keeps a man from making the first phone call.
That is the real value here. Not technique. Company.
Who should read it
A man who is struggling and thinks he is the only one in his church who is. Someone who has been handed bad spiritual advice about depression and needs to hear it contradicted by a pastor. A friend or wife trying to understand what this is like from the inside.
If you need practical treatment tools, get a clinician and read this alongside, not instead.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 in the United States to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. That comes first, before any book.
Anxiety, Depression, and Jesus on Amazon