Feeling Good

David D. Burns · A drug-free, cognitive therapy approach to overcoming depression, anxiety, and negative thinking.

16 people say it helped them, in their own words on Hacker News.

What people said

This book changed my life for the better, as well as The Depression Cure by Stephen Ilardi. Both of them combined got me out of a deep multi-yearlong depression and allowed me to get married, get a better job, be more productive, more active and much much happier.

I studied the book "Feeling Good" that made me understand what depression is and is not, causes, manifestations etc... also in that book there are some self-therapy tools, mostly a special for of journaling.

Read 'Feeling Good' - terrible title, great book. It will probably work better than average on the average HN reader because it takes a 'rational' approach to depression (cognitive-behavioral therapy).

It helped me a lot, in particular in dealing with thoughts something like what the OP's partner apparently had. It has great strategies for first recognizing, and then dealing with such thoughts.

The "Feeling Good" book by David D Burns, which is essentially a fantastic primer on CBT, single handedly helped me conquer my depression in college and helped me graduate with high scores

I devoured this book and within a few weeks felts massively better. I now find that depression can start to creep back in, but I can right away use some tools to get myself right again.

I was having severe anxiety when I started doing the cognitive distortion exercises from the book. It's a bit of work, but change sets in immediately

I read Feeling Good by David Burns, and it did help. It wasn't enough on its own, but a basic understanding of CBT goes a long way.

reading the book recommended by my therapist, "feeling good" by david burns. It helped me a lot more than any advice from parents, friends, strangers on the internet ever did.

By learning to change my thought patterns, it was like having the hole I was in shrink until I could just step out.

"Feeling Good" but it probably saved my life from a descent into insanity. It's my "bible" now.

it helped me tremendously to cope with, and eventually recover from severe depression.

2 months of feeling good probably did as much as a few years of weekly CBT counseling.

helped me get out of a hole of anxiety, depression, and panic attacks.

That book helped me kick some serious depression.

I also found the book Feeling Good by David D. Burns MD helpful. He has several ways to retrain your inner voice to recognize when you're self sabotaging.

Description from Open Library

The good news is that anxiety, guilt, pessimism, procrastination, low self-esteem, and other "black holes" of depression can be cured without drugs. In Feeling Good, eminent psychiatrist, David D. Burns, M.D., outlines the remarkable, scientifically proven techniques that will immediately lift your spirits and help you develop a positive outlook on life.

What people got from it AI summary

Best if you want a rational, CBT-based way to challenge negative thoughts yourself.

• Explained what depression is
• Taught thought-challenging exercises
• Gave tools for relapses

Style

Practical tools · 416 pages

The one-line description under the title is written by AI. Quotes are copied word for word.