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tittypete's review against another edition
4.0
I have times where I feel like I fit the bill for being depressed. It's shitty. Or at least those times are. So I try to figure out how to outsmart it. This book kind of lays out a bunch of different techniques I can use to counter negative vibes that might normally send ol Metch spiralling into a funk. I get grim and become a bummer to be around. But the stuff in Feeling Good works! For me. And the big caveat is that I have to try, practice, be on it, have the will to use it. That's the hitch. Sometimes the funk makes me want to be in the funk. To be shitty because I believe at the time that I am shitty and should feel shitty. If I can remember to use the techniques and get over myself, I can dig myself out. But I don't always have the motivation to do so. That's no fault of the book though. The 4 instead of 5 stars is because the last 150 pages is semi-outdated shit about MAOIs and Prozac. Kind of an irrelevant snooze. But otherwise... this book helped me. Can't promise it will help anyone else. But I'm doing better.
Always,
Metch!
Always,
Metch!
clarke11235's review against another edition
5.0
A great read. I highly recommend it if you or someone you love experiences depression.
mellygraph's review against another edition
4.0
Good resource to learn about cognitive therapy and how to put it into practice. I enjoyed the patient stories, sample dialogues used to illustrate concepts, and all the tools, worksheets and assessments. Towards the end of the book is a comprehensive guide to antidepressants, which I only skimmed, so I can’t comment on that. I’d recommend the first 400 or so pages the book though!
mxmlln's review against another edition
4.0
This is another one of those books to read only selected sections.
apoorva269's review against another edition
Scientifically backed, good intentions, but sounds condescending as hell and therefore feels unhelpful.
1katherinerine1's review against another edition
4.0
I can now proudly add a self-help book to the list of books I’ve read! Self-help is one of those genres I’ve never read. Until now, at least. Because I haven’t read many self-help books, I don’t have a metric to base this book on, other than the wildly different genres I’ve read.
Feeling good is an excellent book about depression. Though, I suppose it’s more about the negative thoughts that we have and how they impair our thinking. Unfortunately, these automatic thought processes run rampant in our society. For some reason, we’ve managed to declare these negative thoughts to be the ideal mind space for a successful person. Humanity has a tendency to make things worse for ourselves when it comes to how we should think. For example, talent. There’s this idea that whatever you have a natural ability for is what you should do with the rest of your life. People with an artistic ability should only be artists-and to be anything else would be wrong, somehow. It’s not just artistic ability, and it’s not just ‘talent’ that falls victim to these incorrect perceptions about the human experience.
As I read this book, I realized how our thoughts control our lives, and how we convince ourselves that it’s not our thoughts that are making our experience for the worse. I thought I was remarkably functional, but this book pointed out many of the thoughts that I have had that impair my day-to-day life. For instance, the all-or-nothing thinking. I wasn’t aware of how often I exaggerate my thoughts. After reading the first few chapters, I took note of how much I exaggerated things in my life that were, in reality, not as bad as I thought.
I appreciated how scientific it was. The analysis of thoughts was comforting and made sense out of common thought processes for depression.
I did, however, grow bored with the section on drug use. The first half of the book, which was about negative thoughts and how to change them, was much more interesting than the section on anti-depressants. But other than that, Feeling good definitely made an impression on me. I hope to try some of the ideas in this book!
Feeling good is an excellent book about depression. Though, I suppose it’s more about the negative thoughts that we have and how they impair our thinking. Unfortunately, these automatic thought processes run rampant in our society. For some reason, we’ve managed to declare these negative thoughts to be the ideal mind space for a successful person. Humanity has a tendency to make things worse for ourselves when it comes to how we should think. For example, talent. There’s this idea that whatever you have a natural ability for is what you should do with the rest of your life. People with an artistic ability should only be artists-and to be anything else would be wrong, somehow. It’s not just artistic ability, and it’s not just ‘talent’ that falls victim to these incorrect perceptions about the human experience.
As I read this book, I realized how our thoughts control our lives, and how we convince ourselves that it’s not our thoughts that are making our experience for the worse. I thought I was remarkably functional, but this book pointed out many of the thoughts that I have had that impair my day-to-day life. For instance, the all-or-nothing thinking. I wasn’t aware of how often I exaggerate my thoughts. After reading the first few chapters, I took note of how much I exaggerated things in my life that were, in reality, not as bad as I thought.
I appreciated how scientific it was. The analysis of thoughts was comforting and made sense out of common thought processes for depression.
I did, however, grow bored with the section on drug use. The first half of the book, which was about negative thoughts and how to change them, was much more interesting than the section on anti-depressants. But other than that, Feeling good definitely made an impression on me. I hope to try some of the ideas in this book!
mthorley23's review against another edition
3.0
A 3 for content but it was not enjoyable and too much unnecessary swearing. A bit patronizing and dense. Good info though.