The Feeling Good Handbook

I love the book The Feeling Good Book, it's helped me so much you should also get Ten Days To Self Esteem

My copy of this book is from 1980. I am certain that the current edition is even more useful! In my case, I combined the cognitive therapy Burns recommends with medication to control my depression, and I would recommend that ANYONE suffering from depression use the same approach. Burns has an excellent treatment of modern antidepressants included in the book.An exceptionally useful item in the book is a self assessment. I used this to periodically rate my level of depression to show if I was getting better or not. This tool alone is worth the price of the book.In any case, if you are suffering from the symptoms of depression, GET HELP! From personal experience, it is extremely difficult to dig your way out of depression alone. Burn's book will augment any form of therapy and medication.By the way, in the early days of my depression, I took the Misnnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) which rates you on a number of items. On the depression scale, I scored 10 out of a possible 10 points! (Which is as bad as it gets!!)

In both this book and its predecessor ("Feeling Good"), David Burns has done an excellent job of putting tools into our hands so we can change the feelings and behaviors that we want to change. The tools in this book that I've found most helpful include (i) instruments to measure both anxiety and depression, (ii) a "pleasure-predicting sheet," (iii) a daily mood log to help identify and change unwanted feelings, and (iv) tools to help you overcome procrastination.I agree with another reviewer who said that this book and "Feeling Good" overlap to a great extent, and I recommend this one. You don't need to read "Feeling Good" first, and the worksheets in this "Handbook" are larger and easier to copy and work with.While Dr. Burns uses tools from cognitive behavioral therapy, I strongly recommend that you also obtain "A Guide to Rational Living," by Albert Ellis. Dr. Ellis invented rational (cognitive) behavioral therapy in the mid-1950s and still writes, lectures, and works with clients. While Burns' books are generally better written than Ellis', Dr. Ellis teaches you how to use cognitive techniques more effectively than Dr. Burns does. Instead of just showing you how to recognize faulty thinking that produces unwanted feelings and behaviors and think of alternative thoughts, Dr. Ellis teaches you how to PERSUADE YOURSELF that this faulty thinking is both irrational and counter-productive. In my view, the difference in their approaches is similar to that between an intellectual discussion and a thoroughly persuasive speech. In order to make the desired changes, you need to convincingly and powerfully persuade yourself to change your thinking. Together, this book and "A Guide to Rational Living" give you most all of the tools you need to experience the changes that you want in your feelings and behaviors. The approaches in both books require work. Passively reading them (or anything) will not lead to significant changes. The best news of all is this: There is hope! And you can have the tools at your fingertips.

I would recommend this book to everyone. My psychologist highly recommends it. Infact she was amused by the fact, that as I was talking to her, I was correcting myself. Be warned, however, that there is another book written by this author that have similar information. Get this big book and not the small one it doesn't have all the info. in it and only about 2 worksheets. Without the worksheets to do, it is just food for thought. I got both, but should have just got this one, only.

This book is excellent. It uses time proven cognitive therapy principles and lists them in an easy to understand and use format. This book is a must for all readers. The money you save verses seeing a therapist makes it a great bargin. I'm not saying it should replace your therspist. But it follows cognitive therapy to a tee--it helps to teach you to become your own therapist