Self-Help/ Feeling Good Book Review

AuroraSky

I posted this on www.sascotland.co.uk but thought it might also be interesting for a few people interested in the self-help/ CBT route with depression.

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David Burns
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0380810336/
Amazon price £4.79

This book, with over 3 million copies in print since 1980, is the best-known and perhaps the most effective book available on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). 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. Another study showed that people who then continued to dip into Feeling Good when needed were still showing benefits three years after reading the book. In the short time I have owned it I have read “Feeling Good” twice and do feel better already. However the author stresses several times that it’s important to do the exercises and write thoughts down on paper, though as little as 15 minutes a day should be enough.

In short, this book has a great deal to offer the depressed person in understanding how their distorted thoughts are affecting their moods for the worse, and then applying techniques to change those thoughts and thereby lift the person’s moods. The book has its faults but given the low price and the potential benefits I would recommend that any depressed should go and order this book today – don’t even put it off until tomorrow. The many positive reviews on Amazon give examples of real changes brought about through using this book. I should also point out that there is an extensive section on the use of medications for depression, which was updated in 1999. Research seems to suggest that CBT and the right meds together work better than either one alone.

Having giving the book such unstinting praise I would have to say that some very depressed or lacking in concentration might find it difficult getting through such a long book (691 pages) or completing the book on their own. Perhaps someone with very severe depression would need the help of a CBT therapist (though often this can prove expensive) to get started, but even then slowly reading through this book would be a helpful complement.

For me the best part of Feeling Good was the chapter about what the author called “Do-nothingism” – the tendency to be totally inactive while depressed and to take little action to help yourself. This chapter identified many of the incorrect thoughts that go on in the mind of the depressed person (such as overestimating how difficult the task will be, underestimating what the rewards will be, and discounting any enjoyment from the activity if it’s not shared with someone else). It then goes on to describe several techniques for putting down one’s negative thoughts related to activity on paper, identifying the faulty thinking each represents, and substituting a more effective thought. For me this chapter was worth the price of the book alone, and since the book is so large with so many potential exercises to do I will focus my efforts initially on the exercises in this chapter.

To give you a better idea of what faulty cognitions (thoughts) can be like, the following passage lists a few of the main different types. One of the main exercises in the book is to write down the thought that is causing you trouble, write down which cognitive distortion is at work, and then come up with a more realistic reply.

“1. All-or-nothing thinking. You see things in black-and-white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.

2. Overgeneralisation. You see a single negative event as a never-ending patter of defeat.

3. Mental filter. You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that colors the entire beaker of water.

4. Disqualifying the positive. You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion.

a. Mind Reading. You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, and you don’t bother to check this out.
b. The Fortune Teller Error. You anticipate that things will turn out badly, and you feel convinced that your prediction is an already-established fact.”

Let’s take as an example the negative thought “I’ll never be able to get the garage cleaned out. The junk’s been piling up for years”. This thought has two distortions – overgeneralisation and all-or-nothing thinking. An example of a replacement thought might be “Just do a little bit and get started. There’s no reason I have to do it all today.” Although this method might seem a bit simplistic, there has been lots of research supporting the use of CBT with both mild and severe depression. I felt the book gave a thorough introduction to the theory of CBT as well as lots of worked examples – enough so that you can work out the answers to your own problematic thoughts.

Finally I should add that the book “Mind Over Mood” by Christine Padesky has been rated higher than Feeling Good by some reviews because the language is simpler. Feeling Good does use quite a few scientific words and might prove a difficult read for those not used to textbooks, but I think most people should be able to manage it.

If you are still not convinced I do recommend that you look through the Amazon reviews, with titles such as “A healed skeptic”, “A life-saver”, “Simply the best book on fighting depression”, and “I would give this book 10 stars”. It’s worked well for lots of others and if you were depressed I would recommend it to you too. It could be the most important book you ever read.