Reviews

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns

alephalephnull's review against another edition

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Incredibly good self-help book! I'd rate 4.75 if I could. A very good therapist is probably better if you're struggling -- but I believe this book is better than most therapists if you use it well. (I also appreciated hearing Dr. Burns on podcasts giving examples of his technique; hearing it in his voice was useful.)

(Marked "DNF" only because I wasn't interested in the later sections on, and I didn't want to miscount my # of pages read on Storygraph)

serru's review

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3.0

A lot of good analysis on the thoughts and behaviours of depressed people. This book not only explains what happens to you and your thoughts when you're depressed and what to do about it but it also discusses how to prevent depression from re-occurring once you've gotten better. I like to review various parts of this book whenever I feel mildly depressed so I can remember what is happening to me and what I can do about it instead of just sitting around and feeling bad.

There are a lot of (somewhat lengthy) writing exercises that can be used to get going in your daily life. I tried a few of the exercises and while they did motivate me to work for the most part, I felt that a seriously depressed person would probably find them far too much effort to do, and would likely not do them at all. But I guess that's what most of the struggle is: doing something-- anything-- instead of nothing is the most difficult for those who are depressed. While this book offers various techniques to get going, it is ultimately up to yourself to try them out.

List of cognitive distortions:
Spoiler1) All-or-nothing thinking: You look at things in absolute, black-and-white categories.
2) Over-generalization: You view a negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.
3) mental filter: You dwell on the negatives and ignore the positives.
4) Discounting the positives: You insist that your positives don't "count."
5) Jumping to conclusions: (a) Mind-reading--you assume that people are reacting negatively to you when there's no definite evidence for this; (b) Fortune-telling--you arbitrarily predict that things will turn out badly.
6) Magnification or minimization: You blow things way out of proportion or you shrink their importance inappropriately.
7) Emotional reasoning: You reason from how you feel--ex. "I feel like an idiot, so I really must be one," "I don't feel like doing this, so I'll put it off."
8) Should statements: You criticize yourself or others with should's, shouldn't's, must's, ought's, and have to's.
9) Labeling: You identify with your shortcomings; instead of telling yourself, "I made a mistake," you tell yourself, "I'm a jerk, a fool, a loser."
10) Personalization and blame: You blame yourself for something you weren't entirely responsible for, or you blame other people and overlook ways that your own attitudes and behaviors contribute to a problem.

brandonjbudd's review

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4.0

Probably worth rereading, though the final section on medication is somewhat outdated and skippable. The exercises and techniques therein seem worth revisiting though.

marciavanbel's review

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4.0

Ok, I didn't really read *all* of it, since the last chapters are about anti-depressants, and though I still managed to wrestle through a lot of that, in the end I didn't feel like reading through side-effects of specific drugs anymore. To be honest, it seems like an overkill to add all that info to this book, and it annoys me that because of that I won't *really* finish it. (:

Aside from that though, there are some very valuable lessons and (practical) exercises in this book. Most of it reads easily, there are some nice examples and a lot of scientific explanations to back things up.

myelen's review

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informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

puncake's review

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informative inspiring medium-paced

3.5

clubsanwich's review

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informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.75

tittypete's review

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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!

clarke11235's review

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5.0

A great read. I highly recommend it if you or someone you love experiences depression.

mellygraph's review against another edition

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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!