Whatever your 'level' of depression the book "Feelink Good" by David D. Burns really could be of help to you. Using simple tecniques, you learn how you can lift your mood within minutes. This book has been highly recommended by many people.

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Product Description

A drug-free guide to curing anxiety, guilt, pessimism, procrastination, low self-esteem, and other depressive disorders uses scientifically tested methods to improve mood and stave off the blues. Reprint.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8608 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 736 pages

From the Author
Overview of changes in revised edition of Feeling Good
Some people have asked about the changes in the 1999 edition of Feeling Good. What is new and different? Why did I revise the book?

Let me say first what was NOT changed. All of the sections on how to use cognitive therapy to overcome depression are the same. Why is this? 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.

The references to these articles are contained in the new introduction to Feeling Good, along with summaries of other interesting new research studies. Much of this research was conducted by Dr. Forrest Scogin from the Univeristy of Alabama. My thinking was, "if it's not broken, don't fix it!"

However, there is an entirely new section in the 1999 version of Feeling Good on the chemistry of moods. These new chapters contain nearly 200 pages of material on how the brain works, including detailed information on all the drugs currently prescribed for depression as well as manic depressive illness. The material on antidepressant medications had not been updated since the first edition in 1980 and was out of date!

Individuals who are taking these drugs can learn all about the doses, side effects, and toxic interactions with other substances such as prescription or over-the-counter drugs they may be taking. They will also learn how to find out if the drug is really helping, how to monitor side effects, what to do if the drug doesn't work, how long to stay a drug it if it does help, and so forth. I believe interested readers will find a wealth of practical information on medicatons in these new chapters.

Readers familiar with my work will know I have not been overly enthusiastic about antidepressant medications over the years. Although I started out my career doing full-time research on brain serotonin and on antidepressant medications, I was never impressed with these agents. This is because I always had many patients who just weren't helped by these drugs. Others were helped a little, but still were not getting back to full self-esteem and joy in daily living.

That's why I developed a keen interest in the new type of drug-free therapy I describe in Feeling Good. These methods have subsequently been shown to as effective as the best current antidepressants, and often more effective, in many research studies. In the past 20 years since I first wrote Feeling Good, I have become even more impressed with the healing power of these new methods for individuals suffering from severe or mild depression.

Nevertheless, depressed individuals often receive antidepressant drugs and many people have benefitted from them. Certainly all patients deserve to have the best and the latest information about these agents. I spent approximately six months working full time to create the new material for the revised edition of Feeling Good--so that my readers would hopefully have available the best of both worlds: the best information about cognitive therapy, and the latest information about the commonly prescribed medicatons as well.

I hope these comments are useful and that readers who are suffering from depression will find the help and relief they deserve. If you have any further questions or suggestions, feel free to visit my new web page at www.feelinggood.com.

One last point. If you already own a copy of Feeling Good, and you are not interested in medications, then there is no reason to update to this new edition. I am working on some exciting new projects for you--visit my web page to learn about them.

Best Regards,

David D. Burns, M.D. Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine

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Customer Reviews

Think Good, Feel Good
The title of my review is actually a summary of how this book plans to make you feel better.

The book is authored by a someone who has had a lot of experience using cognitive therapy techniques to try and improve people's depression. Cognitive therapy's premise is that your thinking (messages that you are giving yourself all day long) directly inflences your moods and how you feel. Therefore, if you are thinking negatively, you're going to feel that way. Likewise, if you think positive and optimistically, well, you're going to feel good!

And that's what the book is about- getting you to get rid of negative thoughts and replacing them with good ones. Does it work? Well, the book has been around since 1980, and there's actually been some good solid research that has actually taken the book, given it to depressed patients.....and they've improved!

With its easy writing style and research-backed techniques, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy is definitely worth the read- just know you've got over 500+ pages ahead of you. If this seems too daunting, or this approach doesn't appeal to you, try something like Exercise Beats Depression- which has been shown to be just as effective as cognitive therapy or drugs in controlled trials. Good luck!

a healed sceptic
Like the other reviewers, i cannot praise this book enough. The effect it's had on me - more specifically, my mood - feels miraculous. It's premise is based on the theory that depression is caused by distorted thinking and if my experience is anything to go by, this is totally accurate. The author emphasises writing your thoughts down and he's absolutely right to do so. When i translated my thoughts on to paper, it was amazing to see how utterly negative, and frankly ridiculous, they sounded. Using the techniques the author explains, the reader - and writer - is able to dissect the thoughts and so arrive at a more realistic, and calmer, frame of mind.
Whatever your 'level' of depression i really believe this can be of help. Put it this way, if it worked for me it can work for anybody.
You may think the idea sounds simple, and one you can perform without the aid of a book. The insidious thing about depression, in my view, is that you often don't realise how bad you are and therefore don't enlist the help you need. This was certainly the case for me - i didn't realise how destructive my thoughts were until i analysed them.
I'm not exaggerating when i say this has transformed my mood - i feel like i've had a brain detox!
If you have depression, even if you think it's very mild, i'd recommend you read this book - what have you got to lose? On the other hand, you may have an awful lot to gain.

Practical, helpful - wish I read it years ago!
Before buying this book I had received both short term therapy and had tried anti depressant medications, but was still struggling to overcome depression.

I bought this book after it was recommended to me on a message board on the topic of depression, and have found it to be a book which was a real eye opener on the first reading, and which I have come back to many times since.

The book begins with a clear explanation of cognitive therapy, which explains that our feelings are not created by things that happen to us, but are the result of how we think about what happens in our lives. This means that we can each be in total control of our emotional lives because we can learn to be in control of our thought processes.

The book then goes on to explain what I felt were excellent practical steps on how to deal with a range of problems which can cause depression, including anger, guilt, procrastination and dependency. There are also plenty of case studies which helped me see how the ideas in the book related to my own life.

The real message of this book is that you can't change the world, but you can change the way you react to it. This may sound like obvious, common sense advice, but once you read the book, you realise how powerful this knowledge can be.

I found that although this book was not a substitute for seeing a therapist, it helped me understand my own problems to the point where I could use the time with my therapist more productively, as I already had a good idea about the areas I needed to work on. I would particularly recommend this book to people who are depressed but who are reluctant to go to their GP or see a counsellor. It will either help you solve your problems yourself, or help you come to the realisation that you need outside input.