The Feeling Good Handbook

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Summary: Feeling Good Handbook
Review: The "Feeling Good Handbook" is a book that contains information that you are required to use on a consistent basis if you want to see positive results ...it is as useful as (if not better than) "The Power of Positive Thinking" book by Norman Vincent Peale. The cognitive approach has to be constantly used on a daily basis in order for the methods to work for you..much like positive thinking. That's it in a nutshell. As with anything else...once you stop using the cognitive approach you slip back into a depression and your old thoughts come back again...I gave the book four stars because it certainly works better then most approaches I have tryed in the past..and it works deeper then positive thinking alone because it penetrates your subconsious by cleaning out all the junk in your mind such as negative thinking, hostilities, bitterness, losses, etc... and reprograms your mind with new positive information and a new "thought" data base. I also gave the book a high mark because I think Dr. David Burns genuinely cares about people and he has excellent knowledge about human behavior, psychology, and theories which seem to work well when used on a consistent basis..I can never overemphasize that word strongly enough! Once again.... it is like working out in a gym... in order to see results you have to keep exercising on a persistent basis ...you have to stay on top of the therapy everyday and that can get very boring...you can only read the book so many times and use the information until you get bored with it or frustrated then you either go back to your old ways of thinking or you try something else...

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Summary: Conquer your depression and fears
Review: The advice in this book is extremely beneficial. It does work. Some of the things Dr. Burns states a depressed person must do is get out of bed and get busy. He also states you must face your fears and suggests that you make yourself "crack up" It is impossible. You can face your fears or phobias using a proces he calls "flooding." I forced myself to face my fear of going back to work. Once I made it through the first day and was successful, I had disproved my distorted thoughts. Dr. Burns gives some incredible writing exercises to do. You state your automatic (negative) thoughts . He has you identify the distortions and then write a realistic thought. You then rate your realistic thought and then again rate your belief in your "automatic" thought. The writing exercises really help, but it does take time and practice. You start feeling gradually better and within a month of hard work, you actually do feel good most of the time. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with any level of depression, phobia, or anxiety attacks.

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Summary: Great workbook!!
Review: This book clearly lines out principles and procedures of cognitive therapy. Readers will learn how to conquer depression, raise self-esteem and overcome anxiety.
The book contains many helpful self-help exercises which get to the heart of things. What I especially liked about this book is its applicability in real life. Apart from depression and anxiety you'll find information about giving good job interviews and procrastination.
But the greatest assets of the handbook are in my opinion the chapters about communication. Here, Burns clearly outlines how to deal with critical and angry people in a non-hurtful, but nonetheless authentic way. I greatly urge you to read this book, even when you've already read his first book "feeling good". The handbook contains some more useful information and applications. Apart from this, it's never wrong to get practice in disputing your dysfunctional thoughts

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Summary: The power of positive thinking
Review: This book 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. This book is well-written, easy to read, and thorough. Highly recommended. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".

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Summary: If you have EVER been Anxious or Depressed!
Review: This book is fantastic! I am a 31 year with a Master in Counseling Psychology who, believe it or not, has suffered from depression and aniexty my whole life on and off. If you honestly want to feel better, and are willing to do a limited amount of mental work then this book is for you. I was taking Zoloft and did not want to take it for the rest of my life. I thought, "There is no way this will work, I have a chemical imbalance." But you miss 100% of the shots you do not try.....I am medication free and feel fantasic. It is all mind over matter...

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Summary: The Ultimate Depression Cycle Breaker
Review: This book is fantastic, for relief for those suffering depression, either light or clinical. I have personally used Dr.Burns's predecessor edition, copywrite 1980 having actually bought 6-8 of the books over time since my depressive moods would come when the book I owned was packed away. In my practice as Coordinator for a PEER Support Line, I have recommended and seen this revised edition, the Handbook, turn many people's lives around. I buy them, and then sell them to people in my Bipolar group. These people report miraculous results and are walking, talking spokespersons, testimonial presenting users for the efficacy of this book. Highly Recommended!!!!! Five stars, five exclamations!

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Summary: BUY THIS BOOK
Review: This book pulled me out of a suicidal depression in 6 short weeks, WITHOUT drugs. It has been a long time since I read the book, but parts of it will always stay with me. I have been so happy for so many years and I'm deeply grateful for this book.

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Summary: Life Saving Tools
Review: This book saved my life 20 years ago and I have refered to it so many times since. I thank God that I finally found some tools to battle my manic - depression. Over the years, I've given away many copies to friends. Some of them found it very helpful, others not so much. If you are feeling down, if the doctors are pushing medications on you, I URGE you to give this self- therapy a try. Maybe you will be one the lucky ones who finds a way to hold off depression without drugs.

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Summary: The feeling good handbook
Review: This is a book that absolutely changed my life! I have read numourous selfhelp books, none of those books has been anywhere close to this book. I wish I have found this book 10 years ago when I started suffering from a 10 years long depression. It's a must read for all those in distress and are determined to help themselves fight depression!

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Summary: Very important book
Review: This is a crucial book to evaluate for those suffering from depression but skeptical of the effectiveness of most psychologists and self-help books.

Burns is one of the biggest popularizers of cognitive-behavioral therapy, one of extremely few therapeutic forms that have stood up to any scientific scrutiny. Over the last 20 years, CBT has become the predominant form of therapy practiced by psychologists. This book is intensive CBT, much more involving and direct than the form practiced in most psychologists' offices.

Burns takes a very simple approach: he does not place any weight on diagnostic categories or figuring out "why" people behave the way they do or the roots of their problems. Instead, every depressed thought is traced to irrational thought processes. Why those thought processes were developed is irrelevant; the challenge is identifying one's distortions and learning to think more rationally.

Contrary to some reviewers' opinions, I believe this book is best for people who have long-term depression in the medium range (recurrent major depression or dysthymia), with substantial experiences with psychologists. Clearly for more extreme cases - a manic depressive or a suicidal person - the first course of action should be a psychiatrist or psychologist, not a self-help book. This book requires a very high level of involvement and personal responsibility. I believe that it is patients who think of themselves as having a medical problem, seeing psychologists and taking medication for years and perhaps feeling dependent on them, who will at some crisis point become frustrated, develop the energy and motivation to work through a book like this and benefit the most from it. Patients with more minor depression will not feel sufficiently motivated to actually do the exercises, which take a substantial amount of time and clash with other life priorities.

CBT encourages short-term (only 12 weeks on average if seeing a psychologist!) therapy and extreme personal responsibility. For most problems, I believe CBT, either in the form of this book or combined with short-term therapy, is much better than seeing a psychologist long-term. Long-term psychotherapy without very clear goals strongly encourages dependence on the psychologist or medication and reinforces the idea that one is permanently ill. This dependence produces further irrational thinking and can very easily lead to continual depression. Reading a book like this and doing its exercises is an exercise in independence and self-reliance and a major accomplishment in itself. The ability to solve one's own problems is difficult to achieve but extremely powerful - perhaps the only solution - for relieving long-term depression.

Burns feels that virtually no one should be on medication long-term - more than about a year - a view that is somewhat debatable (he excludes, obviously, bipolar and schizophrenic patients). The long-term effectiveness of SSRIs is unproven, but Burns' one-year limit seems purely arbitrary.

CBT is also more art than science - although anyone with any experience with psychologists or self-help books will realize that this is true of the entire field. Often Burns' methods and categorizations of irrational thoughts seem completely arbitrary and hardly authoritative. They could probably use more refinement and clarity. What I think is important is that CBT, and even simply reading Burns' book "Feeling Good", have been demonstrated through scientific means - double-blind testing - to produce considerable improvement.

All in all, this is a book with a clear philosophy that has stood up to scientific scrutiny, unlike psychoanalysis or most other therapeutic methods practiced by psychologists. It requires high involvement and emphasizes personal responsibility, and one has to develop considerable motivation to make any use of it. But the results can be extremely worthwhile.