When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 464 pages
• Published by: Broadway June 12, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 076792083X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0767920834
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 15.2 ounces

Product Review


“Few truly great books on psychotherapy have been published, and this is one of them. When Panic Attacks tells you how to deal with all kinds of anxiety and with most other emotional problems. It is clearly and charmingly written.”
—Albert Ellis, Ph.D, founder of the Albert Ellis Institute and bestselling author of A Guide to Rational Living

“Another masterpiece from the author who helped millions help themselves with Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. Dr. Burns’s elegant writing style, compassion, and humor translate powerful psychotherapy methods into accessible, practical, and helpful tools for the vast number of individuals who struggle with anxiety.”
—Henny Westra, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the York University Anxiety Research Clinic

Product Description


Are you plagued by fears, phobias, or panic attacks? Do you toss and turn at night with a knot in your stomach, worrying about your job, your family, work, your health, or relationships? Do you suffer from crippling shyness, obsessive doubts, or feelings of insecurity?
What you may not realize is that these fears are almost never based on reality. Anxiety is one of the world’s oldest cons. When you’re anxious, you’re actually fooling yourself. You are telling yourself things that simply aren’t true. See if you can recognize yourself in any of these distortions:
All-or-Nothing Thinking: “My mind will go blank when I give my presentation at work, and everyone will think I’m an idiot.”
Fortune Telling: “I just know I’ll freeze up and blow it when I take my test.”
Mind Reading: “Everyone at this party can see how nervous I am.”
Magnification: “Flying is so dangerous. I think this plane is going to crash!”
Should Statements: “I shouldn’t be so anxious and insecure. Other people don’t feel this way.”
Emotional Reasoning: “I feel like I’m on the verge of cracking up!”
Self-Blame: “What’s wrong with me? I’m such a loser!”
Mental Filter: “Why can’t I get anything done? My life seems like one long procrastination.”
Now imagine what it be like to live a life that’s free of worries and self-doubt; to go to sleep at night feeling peaceful and relaxed; to overcome your shyness and have fun with other people; to give dynamic presentations without worrying yourself sick ahead of time; to enjoy greater creativity, productivity and self-confidence.
Does that sound impossible? The truth is you can defeat your fears. In When Panic Attacks, Dr. Burns takes you by the hand and shows you how to overcome every conceivable kind of anxiety. In fact, you will learn how to use more than forty simple, effective techniques, and the moment you put the lie to the distorted thoughts that plague you, your fears will immediately disappear. Dr. Burns also shares the latest research on the drugs commonly prescribed for anxiety and depression and explains why they may sometimes do more harm than good.
This is not pop psychology but proven, fast-acting techniques that have been shown to be more effective than medications. When Panic Attacks is an indispensable handbook for anyone who’s worried sick and sick of worrying.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life (Hardcover) It probably sounds somewhat dramatic, but I can only recall two self-help books that had a drastic effect on my life-by giving me a reasonable relief from anxiety and depression. The first one, Mind over Mood, by Greenberger and the second one, Feeling Good Workbook by Dr. Burns. Both of these books are based on solid research, reason and practicality. Almost twenty years since his workbook was written, Dr. Burns has finally written another book. To my disappointment and relief, it looks like he has nothing major to report. The good news is that after all these years of cognitive therapy evolution, there are still only ten types of cognitive distortions. The bad news is that it takes only ten to manage a perfect job to make you miserable. Cognitive therapy is based on the premise that our own automatic unnoticed thoughts WITHIN us, not the events that happen TO US, scare us to death and create a warped reality and provide fertile conditions for depression, anxiety, self-doubt, loneliness and procrastination. Virtually everyone who is depressed or anxious has these distorted thoughts. To get a relief, each distorted thought must be dealt with. As you can't relieve your hunger by just reading a cookbook, you must apply it to your own situation for at least 15 minutes a day 5 days a week. Once learned and practiced, the technique will offer you resilience to life's day-to-day challenges, unlike the antidepressants where the relief exists only while you take them. Burns lists various applications to become aware, challenge and rewire your thought pattern and beliefs about yourself and the world. There is no magic, no parent-blaming, just common sense stuff dealing with the here-and-now. What is so valuable here is Dr. Burn's clear and well-organized writing, his convincing arguments, along with the examples of application that anyone can find an immediate use. What sets this book apart from other self-help books is that it's packaged into a system one can use in a consistent way. Moreover, the improvements one feels can actually be measured with various tests that Burns provides. Once I saw it worked after years of doom and suffering, I dared to feel hopeful. This added to my feeling good. If I were to find faults with this book,I'd say this: in all honesty, there really was no need for this book at all. True, in this book he struggles to find some new ways to tackle problems to justify the new edition, and true, there is some fine-tuning of the previous methods, however, non-essential ones. Feeling Good Workbook is so effective, in my opinion, it has all you'll ever need, which is enough to make a substantial change. In the end, each Burn's book can stand on its own, and will do a perfect job to diminish panic, depression and anxiety (all have distorted thinking as their basic element). Even though the system might sound a bit simplistic, its power lies in consistency of application-easier said than done for someone who is depressed and unmotivated and does not see clearly-but it does become easier if you find it within you to stick with it. If this is pretty much the same book as the one written twenty years ago, why am I giving it 5 stars? It's very simple: If you are a person whose life has been robbed of feeling good for decades, any of Dr. Burns' books, be it this one or the ones published twenty years ago, offers a real tool for change, and this fact alone, deserves all the stars in the skies. Comment | | (Report this)