Feeling Good: Overcome Depression and Anxiety with Proven Techniques

This book has helped me tremendously. Ever since I read it, I can't stop recommending it to the people I care about who struggle with mood regulation. This book will provide a number of tools to combat the symptoms of depression. Depression is the main ailment the book is designed to treat using cognitive behavioral therapy. What's fascinating about this book is that it is incredibly proficient at using rationality to help the reader escape depressive spirals of thinking patterns. The content is so heavily based on rationality and common sense type of thinking, I wondered why it took so long to try and modify my thinking patterns before I read this book. The tools described in the book, such as the double column technique, the downward arrow technique, the pleasure predicting sheet, and the strategies he offers for avoiding nasty fights with people, are so intuitive and accessible that many situations that would have caused emotional distress for me in the past were effectively disarmed using them. You get the feeling that these techniques parallel the natural thinking pattern of people with healthy and positive outlooks. The techniques are easily retrievable in the book for reference later, too. Throughout the book he emphasizes that your own thoughts create your emotions, this is the basis for cognitive behavioral therapy. As such, he doesn't cop out and say that depression can be defined merely as a chemical imbalance in the brain, but that the disease is much more complex. By the end of the book, though, I felt I had a fairly good grasp of the disease as understood by modern psychology, which also helped to make it easier to manage. Burns does not side-step around the problems with depression treatment, either. He recognizes that there are potentially a myriad of ways to treat depression. In the final couple of chapters, he lays out the pharmacological side of depression treatment. Amazingly, he explains the mechanisms of this medicine in a way that I was able to understand. I liked how balanced the book was in that way, because even though he is a proponent of psychotherapy and counseling, he recognizes and lays out the potential benefits of pharmacological treatment. Navigating through anti-depressant medicine can be daunting and he takes the fear of choosing the correct medicine away by encouraging the reader to inform him or herself about the medicines available for treating depression. The final chapter is an extensive reference guide for anti-depressant medication and features all of the adverse side-effects of each and ways that this medicine may interact with other medicine(s) being taken. It is reassuring that the advice and tools in the book are based in science, rationality, and the experience Burns has in treating depression, not "new ageism" or other "too good to be true" type of explanations for the secret to happiness so commonly seen in other self help books. It is a self help book in a class of its own. This was an extremely empowering book. I would recommend it to anyone who feels their emotions run away from them, who are debilitated by extreme moods, and who want freedom from feelings like guilt, fear, and anxiety.

Long story short(-ish): I read this book because I am interested in psychology and, several months ago, I came across a glowing recommendation for this book in another psychology book I was reading. I was especially intrigued by the rather implausible-sounding claim that many people have reported significant improvements in their mood and their overall psychological wellbeing simply as a result of reading this book, even if they don't actually follow any of the exercises in the book. I was curious but skeptical, so I read it for myself. It took me a lot longer to read than I had expected, mainly because, immediately after reading the chapter on procrastination, I was inspired to make a to-do list and start working on a whole host of chores that I had been putting off for ages, including some long-overdue spring cleaning. I spent so much time working on these chores that I had little time for reading, but my mood was already starting to improve dramatically, and the more I got done, the better I felt. I eventually did finish the book, of course, and I must say that it really did live up to the hype. After reading it, I felt happier, more positive, more motivated to get things done, less anxious, and less stressed out. I also became more productive and less of a procrastinator. While I have never, to the best of my knowledge, suffered from clinical depression, like most people, I do on occasion feel a bit overwhelmed by the stresses of life, which can put me in a bad mood from time to time. I have also long struggled with lethargy and a lack of motivation, coupled with excessive self-criticism and self-doubt, which can make it difficult for me to accomplish the things I want or need to do in life. This book has taught me techniques for coping with these challenges, which not only puts me in a better mood but also makes it much easier for me to motivate myself to get things done. I'm not saying that this book is some sort of "magic bullet" that will instantaneously cure your depression and anxiety and grant you perfect psychological wellbeing for the rest of your life. You're going to have to work at it, and you will still face challenges and setbacks from time to time. But this book will teach you proven techniques that you can use to help improve your mood, your motivation, your emotional resiliency, and your overall satisfaction with life. I truly believe that everyone can benefit from the techniques taught in this book. They are especially valuable for anyone who might be struggling with depression, anxiety, or some other mental health issue, but even if you are fortunate enough not to have any of those problems, I still think you will find this book helpful. It will teach you how to improve your mood, how to overcome procrastination, and how to better cope with the stresses of life. We could all use that. In fact, I might even go so far as to recommend that this book be put on the required reading list for all high school seniors and college freshmen, because no one is more in need of developing effective coping skills, emotional resiliency, and self-motivation than an adolescent who is leaving home for the first time. I certainly wish that I had read this book when I was much younger. Anyway, get it; read it; use it. You'll be glad you did. - - - - - Short story long (for those whose eyes haven't already glazed over): I find psychology fascinating. So much so, in fact, that I have even given serious thought to going back to school and pursuing a degree in the field. My primary areas of interest are social and political psychology (since I already have degrees in political science and sociology), but I am also fascinated by cognitive psychology, biological psychology, and abnormal psychology, as well as various other subfields within the discipline. And while I have no real desire to pursue a career in clinical psychology myself, I am interested in learning as much as I can about the methods that clinical psychologists and psychiatrists use to diagnose and treat their patients. In particular, I want to learn as much as I can about cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which has been shown to be one of the most effective methods of treating all sorts of psychological problems—from depression to phobias to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and beyond. One of the reasons that I am so interested in CBT (and similar therapeutic approaches, such as Viktor Frankl's "logotherapy") is that I firmly agree with the core principle that they are founded on: That you can learn how to take control of your own psychological wellbeing and develop the emotional resiliency to cope with the stresses of life rather than being a passive victim of circumstances beyond your control. You can't control what happens to you, but you can learn to control how you think about and how you react to the uncontrollable events in your life—and this can make all the difference. (I should note that this is essentially what the ancient Greco-Roman Stoics taught, which is one of the main reasons I find CBT so appealing, given my fondness for Stoicism. You can even think of CBT as applied Stoicism, updated for the 21st century.) One of the things I like most about cognitive behavioral therapy is that you don't have to suffer from mental illness in order to benefit from it. Anyone can use the techniques of CBT to improve their psychological wellbeing. CBT can teach you how to better manage your moods so that you feel happier, more motivated, more hopeful, more patient, less anxious, less angry, less critical (of self and others), and less stressed out. It can also teach you how to better manage your motivations and habits so that you are more self-disciplined, more productive, and less lazy. It can even teach you how to break bad habits and overcome irrational fears. And all of this can be done with simple, easy-to-use, yet highly effective techniques that you can do on your own, without the need to go see a therapist (unless, of course, you are dealing with very serious mental health issues, in which case, you really should see a qualified psychiatrist or clinical psychologist who is trained in CBT and can help you work through your problems—but most people can benefit greatly from CBT without the need to seek professional help, simply by reading books on the subject and trying out the techniques for themselves). The single biggest obstacle that prevents most people who know about CBT from reaping its benefits is their unwillingness to give it a try, usually because they don't believe it will work (or at least they don't believe it will work *for them*). As you might expect, given my interest in the field of psychology, I am always on the lookout for good books on the subject. And while I don't generally read a lot on clinical psychology (I am far more intrigued by experimental psychology), I do occasionally read books about cognitive behavioral therapy and similar therapeutic methods. (This is due as much to my interest in Stoicism as it is to my interest in psychology, given the Stoic roots of CBT.) So when I first heard about this book, I knew that I would have to read it. Technically speaking, what this book teaches is not CBT—it is cognitive therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a combination of cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy. Cognitive therapy is about helping you learn how your thoughts affect your feelings and how to change the way you feel by changing the way you think, whereas behavioral therapy is about training you to change your habitual patterns of behavior and helping you get accustomed to doing things that fall outside your comfort zone. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) uses both of these methods in combination to help you overcome a wide variety of psychological and behavioral problems. This book focuses on the cognitive side of things, teaching you how to improve your mood by learning how to think more clearly and more realistically about your problems so that you aren't constantly plagued by unhelpful thoughts that serve no purpose other than make you miserable. (If you want to learn about the behavioral side of things, I would recommend the book 'Don't Shoot the Dog' by Karen Pryor.) While I have read other books that explain the principles behind CBT and similar therapeutic methods, this is the first "self help" book I have ever read that actually teaches you how to use the techniques of cognitive therapy to improve your own mood. And I was absolutely stunned at how well it worked for me. Although I don't suffer from clinical depression, I do struggle from time to time with lethargy and lack of motivation. Yet after reading only the first five chapters of this book, I felt inspired to get up and start working on things that I had been putting off for ages, and I was amazed at how good it made me feel. I certainly haven't put all of the techniques taught in this book to good use yet, and I've still got quite a way to go before I'd be willing to say that I'm a completely "cured" of all my bad habits, but the improvement I've seen thus far is undeniable. I feel better than I've felt in years. And while I can't guarantee that it will improve your mood as much as it has mine, I suspect that you will see at least some benefit from reading this book if you approach it with an open mind and a willingness to help yourself get better. But self-improvement isn't the only reason to read this book. You can also learn a lot from it. For example, the last few chapters of the book discuss what is known (or at least what was known in 1999) about the biological causes of depression and about the safety and effectiveness of various antidepressant medications. While at least some of this information is certain to be outdated, since it is now two decades old, much of it is still quite useful. The information in the final chapter about the price of various antidepressants and the availability of generic forms of these drugs is certainly long out of date, but the information about their potential side-effects and how they can interact with other medications is most likely still quite valid. I should note that the author, David Burns, MD—who is a practicing psychiatrist as well as a professor of psychiatry—firmly believes that, while antidepressants are useful for some patients, they aren't for everyone and should never be used alone, but only in conjunction with some form of therapy, such as cognitive therapy or CBT. The decision of whether a patient should use an antidepressant, and which one they should use, will depend on the severity of the depression, the preferences of the patient (and how likely they are to actually use the medicine as prescribed), what other medications they are taking, how well they can tolerate the side-effects, and how well they are responding to therapy (many patients are able to overcome their depression with therapy alone, without the need for an antidepressant). He also believes that antidepressants should only be used for a limited time—three to twelve months—until the patient's depression has improved enough to taper off of them. He firmly rejects the view that patients who take antidepressants will need to stay on them indefinitely in order to prevent a relapse. As long as patients have learned the sorts of coping techniques taught in this book, they should be able to avoid a relapse (and if they do have a relapse, they can always go back on the meds for a short period of time until it passes). In his view, antidepressants should only be used as a temporary aid to therapy, not as a long-term substitute for it. I would certainly recommend this book to everyone—especially to those who are struggling with depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues—but I feel that anyone can benefit from it, since it teaches you how to better manage your moods and how to better cope with the stresses that all of us face from time to time. No one gets through life unscathed. We all encounter our share of troubles along the way. If we live long enough, each of us will have to deal with setbacks of various sorts—the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, health problems, family conflicts, financial worries, stress at work or at school, etc. All of us could stand to benefit from learning coping skills that will help us get through these tough times without giving up or collapsing under the weight of our troubles. And, as I said above, no one could benefit more from these skills than young people—especially those who have just left the nest, or who soon will be. Adolescence can be tough. No longer a child; not quite an adult. Bodies changing; hormones surging. Peers pressuring; parents nagging. Brains still developing; identities still forming. Full of idealism; lacking in life experience. And right when young people most need the stabilizing influence of friends, family, and familiar routines to keep them grounded, we kick them out of high school and send them off to college or into the workforce, where they will encounter new people, new ideas, and new ways of doing things, as well as a whole new set of expectations and responsibilities. How will they be able to cope? That will depend entirely on their psychological resiliency—their ability to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and climb right back onto the horse that threw them. Some people may naturally be more resilient than others, but for the most part, resilience is learned. As with most things, the best teacher is experience (though experience tends to be a tough grader), but there are other ways to learn how to better cope with life's difficulties, and this book is one of them. I would recommend that all high school seniors and/or college freshmen read this book. I would also recommend that they read 'Man's Search for Meaning' by the Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, which should also help them learn to be more resilient. Frankl was a Holocaust survivor whose wife, mother, and brother all died in the camps. In the first part of his book, he talks about his experiences at Auschwitz and other camps, and his observations about how some of his fellow prisoners seemed better able to cope with the brutal conditions they were living under than others were. While some of the prisoners simply gave up and let themselves waste away and die, and others gave in to their worst instincts, treating their fellow prisoners with cruelty or indifference, and even collaborating with the Nazi guards, many were able to endure the horrors of life in the camps without losing their hope or their humanity. Frankl concluded that the ones who were most resilient and never lost their dignity or their sense of self were the ones who felt that they had something to live for—the ones who felt that their life had meaning. Those prisoners who could find a sense of purpose in the midst of their suffering—a purpose that not even the Nazis could take away from them—were able to endure and, if they were fortunate enough to escape the gas chambers and to avoid contracting any of the infectious diseases that quickly spread throughout the camps, had a pretty good shot not only at surviving the camps but at building a decent life for themselves after the war was over—scarred from the experience, to be sure, but still standing tall. In the second part of Frankl's book, he explains his approach to psychology, which he calls "logotherapy", which is based, at least in part, on his experience in the camps. The central premise of logotherapy is that people can endure almost anything as long as they feel that they have something to live for—as long as they feel that their life has meaning and purpose. But without this sense of meaning and purpose, people easily lose hope in the face of adversity. So, the key to helping people become more resilient so that they can better cope with their problems is to help them find a sense of meaning and purpose in their life so that they will feel as if they have something to live for. I think anyone can benefit from the insights found in Frankl's book (if nothing else, it will help you realize that, no matter how bad your problems may seem to be, at least you're not in Auschwitz). I would recommend reading both 'Man's Search for Meaning' by Viktor Frankl and 'Feeling Good' by David Burns, since both will help you learn to become more resilient. But if you are able to read only one of them, I would have to recommend that you read the one by Burns, since it actually teaches you a number of practical techniques that you can use to help yourself (or a loved one) better cope with the sorts of problems that we all face from time to time. Bottom line: I highly recommend this book. If you are suffering from depression or some other mental health issue, it may help you, and it certainly couldn't hurt. But even if you're not suffering from a mental health problem, you will still learn some valuable things from this book about how to better cope with the stresses of life, how to better manage your moods, and how to motivate yourself to do things that you just don't feel like doing. And you may even learn a thing or two about psychology along the way.

It works! I used it to get over some criticisms I cannot take before. The criticisms affect my relationship. I got the idea from this book: if you criticize others not meaning to deny all of the good of others, others' criticisms also do not deny all of you. They might want to help you improve from some aspects. Also, I used the if it is true what it means methods to find out my unaware believes in life: eager for others approval--if no approval-not like me-leave me-I am alone-terrible. I realized that this belief make my life very emotional and not stable. I depend on others' approval! I have the fear all the time to be left alone. Then I try to find a better belief in life: I am good my self. I do not need other's approval to feel good. The easy start book is Being Happy by Andrew. It is good to get an overview of human's nature and basic psychology. Two books fundamentally help me to be calm with myself. The first one is The Feeling good therapy, second one is Search Inside Yourself. These books help me to accept myself, accept my own emotions. All changes need to be from inside from self. Then the third book is How to win friends and influence people. After be easy with myself, it is further step to be good with others. Each word in how to win friends is worth to read and listen! It is a master piece. The author use several years and have a team to read most of related topics and successful people's biography. In the end, the Power of Now and The Four Agreements can be considered. The power of now let me realize that I always avoid now, I always want to stay in the future. Also, the power of now suggests that feel accept and be friend with own emotions. It has a lot of information about past. It is consistent with Search Inside Yourself book. Last but not least it the TED talk about growth mindset by Carol Dweck. Coursera Positive Psychology especially ositive Psychology: Resilience Skills by Karen Reivich. Learning how to learn By Barbara Oakley on Coursera. Why these are related to self-help. We can learn any time any where. We can learn from mistakes and grow. So these will help us be calm and learn when we make mistakes or meet problems.

I think this is one of the best books I've ever read. It gives useful exercises to discover & combat thoughts & mindsets that are often a large part of depression &/or anxiety. And it's not just a "think positive" thing. It actually gives thorough explanations & tests. The language is very personable. The reading isn't dry. I didn't give it 5 Stars because I think the suicide chapter is too light & almost flippant. Overall, this book is a good tool that helps me in past & present trials, plus have some tools to navigate future ones. The underlying hope & help I have, however, is my faith. For me, using this book (which was recommended to me by my therapist at a Christian counseling center), wise counsel, prayer by myself & by healthy family/friends, and verses worked wonders. It's a tool to help renew the mind to combat negative thoughts & hurting feelings. There are Bible verses about "renewing the mind", "taking thoughts captive" & "let the Spirit renew your mind". As a Christian, I'm to be active in seeking how to do that. This is a book that helped me renew my mind, and face defeating, dangerous, hurtful, thoughts that enter all of our minds as humans. This book can help anyone. As a side-note: I purchased the yellow version of this book for myself in May 2014, read it, but it was very hard to read, because it's small & thick & hard to keep open. It was very difficult to get on my ergonomic book stand. I got massive headache & neck pain reading it at the beginning chapters trying to keep the book open. My dad wanted a copy, so I purchased the white version for him... it's much easier to read. Opens fully & will fit on an ergonomic book stand well.

Let me start by saying I have been an Amazon customer for twenty years and I have *never* reviewed anything before. But I consider this book to important for me to keep my mouth shut. It was a life-changer for me. Don't know why some reviewers are saying it is not helpful for people with severe depression - maybe some people with severe depression need a different approach, but let me speak for the rest of us. I was having suicidal thoughts, and on the highest doses of meds available. I was also in therapy. I tried two different therapists, both of whom wanted to talk about other people in my life - my parents, my husband, etc. - which was not helping me at all. I was at my wit's end, really scared that I was going to hurt myself if things didn't get better soon, when a friend recommended this book. You have to do the exercises - yes, they seem silly, but if they work, who the heck cares? Get a nice little notebook and a pen that you enjoy writing with. I made mine a sort of journal that I doodled in and added little inspirational quotes here and there. And yes, it is deceptively simple. Again, who cares? If standing on my head and whistling "Dixie" would have made me feel this much better, I'd be doing that, too. I started reading the book a month ago. I do not do all the excercises, but I did try all of them. I do what works for me. It's also true that there is the usual filler crap that you get in self-help books "Janet is a 40-year old dental assistant who came to me in 2005 suffering from..." blah, blah, blah. Just skip it. My depression is so much better that I am shocked. I am no longer thinking about suicide, and I am actually able to picture a future that is not completely empty and black. A future!!!!!! I have not had a future in years! I can't express what that means to me, but if you have depression, I don't have to. Try the book. If it doesn't work, I hope you will try something else, and keep on trying. You are not alone, and you deserve to be happy.

My shrink suggested this book when I was going thru a ROUGH period of depression, anxiety, and all that fun stuff. 🙃 🥴🥹 VA (Veteran Affairs) has years long wait for one on one therapy. I had to take charge of my own mind again, with or without Healthcare's aid! Brilliant, easy read. If you actually USE the tools for proper coping skills, this really helps!! Author give a multitude of examples for dyi tracking and troubleshooting patterns of thinking that cause our misery with mood disorders to spiral and get worse. You can choose and modify these skills to suit your needs, too! So, get a journal, pens or pencils, and this book, and get to work feeling-- and thinking!-- in a much better manner!! Relearn, or learn for the first time, how to LIVE life again!!

This is an excellent book due to the fact that it provides multiple valid assessments you can use to help figure out your problems, and action steps you can take towards taking care of them. As I read through it, at times I couldn't help but think "Wow, that's EXACTLY what's been on my mind! The author really does get it!" My favorite part is the fact that the author suggests a rational approach to working through personal issues - you must write down the negative thought that's causing your problem, and provide a realistic, rational rebuttal. Being a very logic-oriented person, this approach works wonderfully for me. Now, for the bad part - at times, I couldn't help but feel like the examples of dialogues with potential issues and logical rebuttals are overly simple. i.e. "Dr. Burns, my boyfriend didn't call me, so I must be a completely horribly girlfriend" "Well, Stacy, can anyone be truly COMPLETELY horrible?" "Oh, I never thought of it that way! I sure can make darn good cookies, so I'm not COMPLETELY horrible! My depression is now gone!" Of course I'm exaggerating here and this isn't an actual example from the book, but that is how some of them feel like. Certainly many people have irrational beliefs that they have not thought through very well, but others have analyzed and rationalized their beliefs a hundred times over, and such simplistic suggestions may feel almost insulting to them. Another problem is the author's suggestion that you should simply discard any beliefs that are not to your advantage. Let's suppose you believe short men are less attractive because you find them to be less attractive, and it's been proven many times that height makes men more attractive to women. If you're a short man, this belief is not advantageous to you, but it's a *fact*, and you certainly can't deny it simply because it's not to your advantage. In the end, it's still a great book who many people would find very helpful. A book can't be expected to provide rational reasoning against every individual self-limiting belief. I just can't help but feel a sense of arrogance in the author when I read of how so many of his patients went through miraculous transformations when he exposed them to a fairly obvious truth they were somehow disregarding. Personally, I'm looking forward to discussing some things that came to mind while reading this book during an actual in-person therapy session with a CBT therapist.

As a father of a teen with anxiety and depression I started to read this book looking for tools to help My daighter. The boom has helped me to understand better the causes of her mood swings. Her therapists also used CBT to trest her, so I could also understand better the steps they were doing. Thisnis a very useful resource for self help and to help others (at least understand them in a better way). Absolutely recommended.

I’m usually sceptic when I see a self-help book. The first question I ask myself is that, is it going to be another book with unrealistic view of the world, lots of references to religion, metaphysics and heavenly powers, full of unscientific methods written by a salesperson who wants to get richer by making you buy their cliché positive sentences? This book is none of the above. First of all it’s written by a scientist, and you’d notice the difference if you have read a few other self-help books written by non-scientists (which are the majority of self-help books unfortunately). Contrary to them it doesn’t try to convince you that the world is a heaven in disguise. Nor it doesn’t ask you to do something and rely on god or other heavenly entities to do the rest for you. Instead it tries to teach you methods with which you can better understand your thoughts, and be realistic about them. Keep a note of your thoughts, and if they’re unrealistically negative try to use facts to shift them towards reality. One of the main symptoms of depression is procrastination, and the size of the book (almost 700 pages) might intensify this. If this is the case, please note that the book can be considered as several books bundled together. Chapter 20 is a reference of psychiatric drugs and is almost 150 pages. Since it is a reference you don’t need to read it all. The main gist of the book is the concept called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which is introduced in the first 50 pages of the book. So if you’re frightened by the size of the book, you can start by reading the first 50 pages and get the main idea and start practicing the method. The remaining chapters are more specific to certain problems, and help you better cope with those problems. I found all chapters beneficial, but if you don’t have time for them all, you can instead pick the one that suits you the most. There are chapters focusing on low self-esteem, procrastination, fighting back criticism, handling anger, guilt, suicide, etc. One of the most enjoyable parts of the book was Part 7, chapters 17 to 19, in which David Burns explains clearly and in the most simplistic language, how the nervous system works, and how antidepressant drugs work, and what’s the reason behind their side-effects. It was through these chapters that I learned about a concept called drug interaction in which two or more drugs when taken together increase or decrease their effect or side-effect. Since it’s difficult for all physicians to keep the progressively changing information about all drugs in mind, it’s better for the patients to check them themselves. I found this website in which you can search the drugs you take (including food supplements) and check their interactions (I’m sure there must be more of such websites): https://reference.medscape.com/drug-interactionchecker I started to apply some of the methods myself, and found them beneficial. I may not religiously follow all the methods with the formats specified in the book, though I may not diverge too much from them either. If I can summarise this book in one sentence it would be: Pen and paper are human’s best friends.

Libro eccezionale. Chiarissimo e pieno di esercizi. Prima di rivolgervi ad uno specialista potreste leggerlo. Mi è stato di grande aiuto in in periodo poco sereno.

Goed voor nieuwe inzichten

This book has helped me look at people including myself with a better perspective. I recommend this book to everyone!

Good book