Question:
Has anyone read or used Burns’ book "Feeling Good" and found it helpful? Its a cognitive therapy handbook that appears to have been around for 20 years. My T recommended it and I just started it. It focuses on work done at the U of Penn Mood Disorder clinic. It focuses on wrong thinking resulting in depression. Distorted views of oneself and the resulting depression, that sort of thing. I’m just into 20 pages or so, and curious if anyone’s found it beneficial. Of course we’re all different, so its just a curiousity that makes me post. Kristine
Response:
This book can be very beneficial and gets to the root of a lot of ptsd survivors’ behavior: their perceptions and the ensuing anxiety or depression. However, understanding the subtle differences in the thought fallacies and then applying the therapy with writing exercises does take work. It’s really not enough to just recognize a thought fallacy and then argue in through mentally. In writing down the process, you can begin to recognize important patterns in your thought errors and have a more far-reaching insight and hopefully healing and change. I think it’s good to read and practice it for awhile and then return to it throughout your healing process. God knows, I need to return to it now! Yours, LTattoo (aka The Procrastinor)
Response:
On 16 Nov 1999 14:50:32 GMT, barbiee…@aol.com (BarbieEnvy) wrote: >Has anyone read or used Burns’ book "Feeling Good" and found it helpful? Its a >cognitive therapy handbook that appears to have been around for 20 years. My T >recommended it and I just started it.
I found it cheap at a discount store during my last bout of post-natal depression. All in all it was useful to me, especially seeing as it helped me find a way out of the pit I’d been in. I did have a bit of difficulty at first putting some of the new attitudes into use, because I wasn’t aware of the anxiety underneath the depression, but with practice it became much easier. At that time I hadn’t even suspected I might have ptsd. Had I understood the anxiety factor back then, I might have gotten more from it than I did. I’ve gone back and read bits through again since and it’s been handy the 2nd and 3rd time round. But as you say… we’re all different. :-) Best wishes for the long, long path ahead, The Celt. May the road rise beneath your feet, May the wind be always at your back. thecelt00 (at) icqmail (dot) com icq 45954753
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