The Feeling Good Handbook

New York, N.Y.: Plume, 1999. Revised Edition. Later Plume Printing. Trade paperback. Good. xxxvi, 732 pages. Illustrations. Index. Some page discoloration. Revised with Up-to-Date Information on the Most Commonly Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs. Includes Acknowledgments, Preface to Revised Edition. Introduction. Chapters include Understanding Your Moods; Feeling Good About Yourself: How to Conquer Depression and Build Self-Esteem; Feeling Confident: How to Conquer Anxiety, Fears, and Phobias; Feeling Good Together: How to Strengthen Relationships Through Better Communication; Mood-Altering Medications; and For Therapists (and Curious Patients) Only: How to Deal with Difficult Patients. This book contains an up-to--date section on commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs, and anxiety disorders such as agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. It also shows how to feel good about yourself and the people you care about. With his phenomenally successful Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, Dr. David Burns introduced a groundbreaking, drug-free treatment for depression. Now in this long-awaited sequel, he reveals powerful new techniques and provides step-by-step exercises that help you cope with the full range of everyday problems: * Free from fears, phobias, and panic attacks; * Overcome self-defeating attitudes; * Discover the five secrets of intimate communication; * Put an end to marital conflict; * Conquer procrastination and unleash your potential for success. With an up-to-date section on everything you need to know about commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs and anxiety disorders such as agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. David D. Burns (born September 19, 1942) is a psychiatrist and adjunct professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the author of the bestselling books Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy and The Feeling Good Handbook. Burns popularized Aaron T. Beck's cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) when his books became bestsellers during the 1980s. In a January 2021 interview, Burns attributed his rise in notoriety, popularity and much of his success to an initial appearance in 1988 on the afternoon television talk show, The Phil Donahue Show, in which he was invited by the producer after helping her teenage son with depression. The Burns Depression Checklist (BDC) is a rating scale for depression copyrighted by Burns. The 1984 version was a 15-question survey; the 1996 revision is a 25-question survey. Each question is answered in the context of "during the past week, including today" and on a scale of 0 to 4, with 0 being "not at all" and 4 being "extremely." For Burns, the BDC replaced Aaron Beck's BDI which appeared in the 1980 edition of Feeling Good (that Burns says he was grateful for permission to reproduce). Burns has also developed brief scales to measure depression, suicidal urges, anxiety, anger, and relationship satisfaction, as well as scales to assess the quality of the therapeutic alliance and effectiveness. These scales have high reliability (generally above .90)[citation needed] and each scale can be completed by patients and scored in less than 15 seconds. Burns and his colleagues require patients to complete these instruments in the waiting room just before and after each therapy session, so therapists can see how much progress the patient has made, or failed to make. Based on this information, therapists can change strategies if needed. Patients also rate therapists on warmth, empathy, and helpfulness in the waiting room after each session so therapists can see with much greater accuracy how their patients feel about them and the therapy.