Rating: 
Summary: A must for anyone suffering...
Review: As a woman of 5 children, I needed help so desparetly that words can't even describe. I had anxiety, depression, and was afraid to answer the phone or the door. I could not leave my house. I wanted so bad to do things for myself and for my kids, but had to depend on my dh for everything. Then one day I came across someone talking about this book on a message board, and I thought I'd give it a try. I did, and I can't tell you how greatful I am to Dr. Burns for writing this book. Not only did it do me good by feeling emotionally better, but it gave me the strength I needed to get help for myself. I no longer have depression or anxiety. I can go anywhere I want to now and enjoy my life the way I deserved to all along. And I could have never gotten to where I am now without the help of this great book. I am not going to lead you to believe that the book itself will change your life, but it WILL lead you in the right direction, and if you really want to feel better, it will help you do just that. Please do yourself a favor, and the people in your life as well, and pick up a copy today. You wont be sorry!
Rating: 
Summary: Overview of changes in revised edition of Feeling Good
Review: Some people have asked about the changes in the 1999 edition of Feeling Good. What is new and different? Why did I revise the book?Let me say first what was NOT changed. All of the sections on how to use cognitive therapy to overcome depression are the same. Why is this? Several recent research studies published in scientific journals indicated that approximately two thirds of depressed people who were asked to read Feeling Good improved or recovered in just four weeks with no other therapy. The references to these articles are contained in the new introduction to Feeling Good, along with summaries of other interesting new research studies. Much of this research was conducted by Dr. Forrest Scogin from the Univeristy of Alabama. My thinking was, "if it's not broken, don't fix it!" However, there is an entirely new section in the 1999 version of Feeling Good on the chemistry of moods. These new chapters contain nearly 200 pages of material on how the brain works, including detailed information on all the drugs currently prescribed for depression as well as manic depressive illness. The material on antidepressant medications had not been updated since the first edition in 1980 and was out of date! Individuals who are taking these drugs can learn all about the doses, side effects, and toxic interactions with other substances such as prescription or over-the-counter drugs they may be taking. They will also learn how to find out if the drug is really helping, how to monitor side effects, what to do if the drug doesn't work, how long to stay a drug it if it does help, and so forth. I believe interested readers will find a wealth of practical information on medicatons in these new chapters. Readers familiar with my work will know I have not been overly enthusiastic about antidepressant medications over the years. Although I started out my career doing full-time research on brain serotonin and on antidepressant medications, I was never impressed with these agents. This is because I always had many patients who just weren't helped by these drugs. Others were helped a little, but still were not getting back to full self-esteem and joy in daily living. That's why I developed a keen interest in the new type of drug-free therapy I describe in Feeling Good. These methods have subsequently been shown to as effective as the best current antidepressants, and often more effective, in many research studies. In the past 20 years since I first wrote Feeling Good, I have become even more impressed with the healing power of these new methods for individuals suffering from severe or mild depression. Nevertheless, depressed individuals often receive antidepressant drugs and many people have benefitted from them. Certainly all patients deserve to have the best and the latest information about these agents. I spent approximately six months working full time to create the new material for the revised edition of Feeling Good--so that my readers would hopefully have available the best of both worlds: the best information about cognitive therapy, and the latest information about the commonly prescribed medicatons as well. I hope these comments are useful and that readers who are suffering from depression will find the help and relief they deserve. If you have any further questions or suggestions, feel free to visit my new web page at www.feelinggood.com. One last point. If you already own a copy of Feeling Good, and you are not interested in medications, then there is no reason to update to this new edition. I am working on some exciting new projects for you--visit my web page to learn about them. Best Regards, David D. Burns, M.D. Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine
Rating:
Summary: Excellent cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression
Review: A very useful book. While depression has been associated with chemical changes in the brain, there is no proof that depression is caused by these changes. It could equally well be that depression is what is making the changes occur, and that we can in fact manage our depression without drugs. I have personally found this to be the case. With the help of this book I have been able to stop taking antidepressants. I find dealing with the issues that caused my depression to be much more useful than medically treating the symptoms. David Burns offers practical methods of dealing with your sadness and despair without having to endlessly dredge up your past. You can acknowledge your past and its unfairness, while dealing with your depression in the present. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is the only type of therapy that has been proven useful in dealing with depression. Burns offers an excellent example, and a much cheaper one than medication for those without health insurance (and a safer one for those with -- after all, the newer drug therapies haven't been around long enough yet for doctors to know about long-term side effects). I recommend this book most highly.
Rating:
Summary: ...a valuable component of a complete treatment program.
Review: In conjunction w/ medication and therapy, this book helped me turn my life around. I found the exercises valuable and they have provided insight that I still find myself using on a recurring basis. I have now been depression- and medication-free for several years. I credit Dr Burns' book with playing a significant role in my recovery. {non-disclaimer: I have no connection with either the books' publisher, Amazon.com, or the medical/pharmaceutical industry.}
Rating: 
Summary: Confused, vague, simplistic. Yet, do the math for the author
Review: Dr. Burns just puts in layman's terms the technical texts by his teachers, Drs Aaron and Judith Beck (also brief and vague). Throughout the book he tells you how "wrong" YOU are in being depressed. He also keeps throwing kisses at Dr. Beck and at himself (need for self-assurance?).
It has been clinically demonstrated that depression is due to a complex chemical alteration of the metabolism of neurotransmitters.
The result is that the patient acts "strangely" for months or years and this behavior bears heavily on his/hers social, affective and working life.
Once treated by a competent psychiatrist, the patient MAY beneficiate from some SOLID counseling to re-learn and re-adapt to "normal" social life and to attempt to REPAIR the damages created by depression to any sort of relationship with onself and others.
A depressed patient simply DOES NOT HAVE the stamina to go through 400 plus pages of exercises and examples, let alone go around with a wrist counter, clicking away!! This book could lead depressed patients to even more deep depression once they find that they fail to complete the "exercises" and they would feel more "worthless" (they are not) and have even less stamina for life than before.
I find that this book, like the vast majority of self-help books, helps very well the purposes and the bank accounts of their authors.
If you are depressed you only need one thing: to be taken care of by a competent doctor until you can walk on your 2 feet again.
Rating:
Summary: Not "new" and not "drug-free."
Review: If you already own the 1992 version, this one is word-for-word the same. So, as others have said, it's still dated. Then, because Dr. Burns advocates the use of drugs just as much as everyone else does, how can his method be called drug-free. Let's tell it like it is. If therapy is enough, fine. But this author acknowledges that therapy combined with medication is most effective for when you need more -- and I think that's the majority of people.
Rating:
Summary: Good Technical Information about Chemical Depression
Review: Half of this book is about behavioral and attitude adjustment, BUT a good deal of it is very informative advice about drugs that are available including some that are not publicised much. I really was happy to see the Beck Depression Inventory depression test, a standard multiple choice test that measures the degree to which one is depressed. In many ways this helps validate that what one is going through is a serious illness (one sees that a high score on this test is definitely not the norm). Also, the interviews he includes with other patients tends to bolster the spirit and sense of community with other sufferers. The tone he takes seems very warm and even loving and when one is in an isolated and pathetic and beaten down state it really lifts one's spirits.
Rating:
Summary: Immediately started to feel better
Review: This book sat on my shelf for, oh, about 3 years before I picked it up and started to read it. As soon as I began the exercises, the black cloud started to lift. It may not work for everyone, but it has helped me immensely!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but dated and new agey at the same time.
Review: Maybe it's because I have read so many, but Feeling Good suffers in comparison to I Don't Want to Talk About It (Real) and Undoing Depression (O'Connor), both in helping skills and writing style. Although it is good and sincere, I find the style somewhat touchy-feelly. Those who become enamored of the cognitive approach often become rigid and unwilling to explore other possibilities in treatment.
Rating:
Summary: This book is the one to choose.
Review: This book is incredibly simple and practical. When I think of the years of anxiety ridden depression I put myself through without this book, I just want to throw up! Get this book!
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