Customer Reviews

The Feeling Good Handbook

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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.

Hat's off to Dr. Burns for having written a very practical guide anyone can use to combat depression and build positive self esteem. For years I have been in therapy, but I have realized that positive change all comes down to me. Burns provides the simplistic, yet highly effective tools to work through one's distortions on a daily basis. As he emphasizes, merely reading the book will not help. It is reading, understanding, but most importantly, DOING the exercises on paper that will produce results. Burns writes at a gut level. I don't think there is one page that is useless or irrelevant. Most striking is the author's genuine compassion for the reader. He sincerely wants you to succeed !!! I have often found this lacking in most self-help books. Their authors seem more interested in giving the reader a one shot "pep- booster", but fail to provide exercises that will promote lasting results. I have read many self help books concerning depression and self esteem, but this particular one is the "leader of the pack" as far as I am concerned. Buy it, Read it and Do the exercises!!!!

Reading "The Feeling Good Handbook" did me more good than three years of talk therapy; I can't recommend it highly enough. Rather than simply help you dredge through your past for the origins to your problems, Dr. Burns gives you the cognitive tools to allow you to reshape your thinking patterns, and with them, your feelings and actions. If you think you'll never be able to change your depressive or destructive thoughts, read this book, do the exercises, and watch your life change for the better.

Trying to overcome negative emotions and habits by thinking positive thoughts and applying advice given in many self-help books is like trying to solve the quadratic equation in your head. The thing that sets this book apart is that it gives you a step by step written procedure with which you discover, analyze and dispute the thoughts that make you feel bad. After doing the written exercise - the triple column technique, I found that the new rational thoughts attached themselves to the negative emotions I was trying to overcome. Later, when I re-experienced situations that could produce the same negative emotions, the new rational thoughts would bubble up to my consciousness and keep me from re-experiencing (or at least minimize) the negative emotion. This stuff is incredible!

I found this book to be very helpful as an adjunct to Burns's previous book Feeling Good. While not absolutely essential, I think most people would benefit from reading and applying the techniques from Feeling Good prior to studying The Feeling Good Handbook. Once you have the basics down from the former book, you can more easily benefit from the specific techniques in the Handbook. I especially found the chapters on procrastination to be very helpful. I was able to go from extremely depressed to normal and happy using the techniques in Feeling Good alone, but I enjoyed Burns's writing so much that I just had to pick up this book, too, as well as his other books.
If you only purchase one self-help book I'd recommend Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. If you want to read more I'd recommend this book as a second purchase for help with applying cognitive therapy techniques to specific problems such as procrastination, anxiety problems and communication problems. If you need help with shyness or relationships I'd recommend Burns's Intimate Connections.

I'm rather disappointed with this book; it adds nothing to what was said in the original Feeling Good (a book I found to be nothing short of revelatory, perhaps the best book on depression self-help I've ever encountered). I'd expected new information and a great deal of useful pencil-and-paper work not contained in the original "FG". There is some of that here, but far too little, and functions neither to add new info to nor to expand meaningfully upon the original book. Also, a quarter to a third of the Handbook consists of a guide to medications. Useful info, indeed, but not the sort of thing I go to a volume on cognitive therapy to read up on--this info is available in so many other places, and as presented here will soon be out-of-date as well.

This book shows how changing your thoughts can change how you feel.
Dr. Burns also shows how to achieve this change.
A good read for everyone, not just those with issues.

[...]

I bought this book a few years ago and find myself visiting this page at Amazon because I want to recommend it to a friend and find that my own copy is out on loan to someone else!

There are so many self-help books on the market that I tend to be wary of them, but I found this one genuinely helpful at a time when practical help was really needed. Dr Burns says it very clearly himself - you have to do the exercises to get the benefit, because this sort of approach is all about getting intimate with the thoughts in your own head. The book does give theoretical explanations, but fundamentally it's a practical tool to help you to get inside your own head and change what's going on there. Dr Burns' approach is about challenging your own negative thoughts, which some people might say you don't need a book and exercises to do. I can only say that when I was deeply depressed it was exactly what I did need - someone to take me gently but firmly by the hand and lead me through my own head in order that I could get through the paralysis and begin functioning again.

Dr Burns includes a depression rating test which enables you to monitor your own progress. I found that this had 2 applications - firstly it helped me to take my own depression seriously, and secondly it encouraged me to keep going as I could see the results of Dr Burns' approach on a daily basis.

A lot of people don't like being told what to do, especially when it comes to dealing with their own problems. This book does require that you come at it with an open mind and are willing to be guided to some extent, and are willing to be honest about what's really going on with you. The exercises are deceptively easy and for this reason I can see that some people might be dismissive of the approach. On the plus side you can hit the exercises absolutely at your own level - you don't have to tackle everything all at once. Start with the 'little' things if that's where you're at (motivating yourself to eat lunch, for instance). No-one else can tell you exactly why you're depressed and what's going to make it change for you. This book is for people who really want to feel better and are willing to make an effort on their own behalf but want to do it at their own pace and not feel bullied. It isn't easy to come through depression - it's paralysing by nature. This book can't do it for you, but it can be a companion through it.

I still do refer to this book and use the exercises when I get stuck (it also includes a fantastic section on procrastination which I would recommend to anyone, depressed or not!) I also want to add, though, that at the time that I was first using the book I was also taking anti-depressant medication - without that I wouldn't have been able to even pick up a book like this, never mind work with it! It's not the same for everyone, but don't beat yourself up if you need the medication too.

This book was recommended to me by my therapist after I was diagnosed 3 months ago as being in a deep depression. Between an anti depressant; weekly counselling and using this book as a guide, I am now not only out of my depression, but feeling better than I have in years!!!!

I had suffered from periodic depressions all my life and finally decided it was time to do more than just take medication. The combination of the drug; counselling and Feeling Good, I now have the tools to keep me from going back into a depression but more importantly, know why I have had so many problems with depression in my lifetime.

Thank you Dr. Burns ...

Wendy N.

This book has really worked for me. I struggled with depression for a few years and this book has helped me more than medication or talk therapy ever has. The exercises in the book are simple enough that you don't need that much motivation to get started and they really work for me. Now that my depression has lifted, I still use this book for many life situations from job interviews, my relationships, procrastination and getting over negative experiences. There is so much wisdom to learn from Dr. Burns. If this book wasn't so big, I would bring it everywhere so I can read it any time I need a boost. I am so thankful for this book.