Feeling Good : The New Mood Therapy

Rating:
Summary: Really feeling better after using it
Review: Addicted to self help books, I found that almost every one of them helped you, but in a tiny way and in the long term. This is the one that really helped me in the medium term. After using it everyday for nine months making the written exercises my mood improved substantially and jumped to a better level. Now when my mood falls I know that I really can "pull myself up" even tough I am not writing everyday.

Rating:
Summary: Not at all what I expected...
Review: Coming from a younger perspective, this book was very hard for me to understand. I tried to read it, and tried, but it was somewhat technical and hard to comprehend. I have suffered from severe depression for most of my life, and this book just didn't do anything for me. I think that this book is okay for an adult audience which suffers from, at most, moderate depression. For those of you with more severe depression, I can tell you from experience, that *DBT (maybe even CBT) works much better than this book.

(*Dialectical Behavior Therapy)

I hope that this helped you.

Rating:
Summary: Theoretical Insight & Practical Application
Review: An easy read w/ impressive results. I read the first two chapters in early 2004 while suffering from moderate/severe depression. It really helped me to see how irrational my thought processes were at that time...at this point, I'm cured! (Not soley because of this book; but the book certainly did help. I still use some of the lessons I learned while reading it.)
A relative started suffering from mild depression in late 2004. I got him this book and in the first week he had it, he started doing better. He finds the book VERY helpful. He's surprised by what it taught him about depression and, more importantly, how to combat it.

Rating:
Summary: I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ALL DEPRESSED PEOPLE
Review: I first read this book as required reading while in graduate school, earning a Masters Degree in Psychology. I keep copies in my personal library to loan out to people who are dealing with all types of depressing stuations from stressful jobs, marriages going downhill, coping with illness--to more severe types of depression. I attended a workshop in Louisville where Dr. Burns gave a full-day presentation of techniques in this book and became even more sold on his techniques. In addition to this book, I recommend the works of psychologist, Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D. I especially like "Focusing on Feeling Good: A Skill-Building Experiential Self-Management Program for Overcoming Depression." This program contains four CDs. Both Dr. Burn's "Feeling Good" and Dr. Yapko's CD program make a great set to refer to when dealing with depressing situations that occasionally or often come our way.

Rating:
Summary: Huge Help!
Review: Reading and applying the principle in this book pulled me out of the depths of years of depression. I review this book from time to time to stay on track.
I've started to try to think positive, focus on the good things. I've even changed my diet by cutting out caffine drinks completely. . I switched over to a caffeine-free coffee substitute made from soyabeans I found on the net at www.
S o y c o f f e e.c om. Its made me feel a lot better and lot healthier all day. This book is full of practical, easy to understand suggestions and makes you feel good just by reading it. I'd say its something you've got to read and experience for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: The power of positive thinking
Review: 'Feeling Good' is a classic and probably should be read by everyone. I say this in spite of coming from the school of thought that much of depression is biochemical and is not easily undone without medication.



Nonetheless, correcting negative thought patterns is an important part of undoing depression, especially mild depression. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Help for Depression!
Review: My psychiatrist recommended this book to me while I was hospitalized for sever episodic depression. This book helped tremendously. I was able to take control of my emotions and finally strike back.

I would recommend this book to any one suffering from depression. I use it often to reinforce the cognitive behavior tools I have learned, and focus myself back on to the right track. I have learned to deal with my depression and have found the cognitive thinking very useful in every day situations as well.

Rating:
Summary: Helpful to many- depression is a way of thinking also
Review: I am basing this review in good part on the responses of Amazon readers I just have read. It may not be anything like a real statistical sample, but the fact that so many of the people who write here suffered from depression , and were helped by this book is the best endorsement I can think of.
I know without doubt that there are forms of depression and people so depressed that all of this would simply be mumbo- jumbo to them and not help at all. That's also part of the reality.
From what I read of the book there were principles which made real sense. I noticed that when I tend to depression or when people I know are depressed there is always a focus on the negative detail. This is considered obsessively . I notice too other ' distortions' in thinking which seem to be identical with depression. One of these is of course the inability to see the positive element in anything.
I do believe that ' changing the way one thinks can really help depressed people. And that this book can be of help.
I also think it can be of help to those with a tendency to depression like myself, who somehow fight with this and overcome it most of the time.
We are continual interpreters of reality .And we can make a heaven of hell, or a hell in heaven's despite. It would be wonderful if most of us good somehow see more of the 'good' and less of the evil. By the way this corresponds with traditional Jewish thinking which enjoins us always to try and see the positive first in someone , and to always try to ' look up'.