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

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 20 years since his workbook, 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 10 types of cognitive distortions. The bad news is that it takes only 10 to manage a perfect job to make you miserable.

Cognitive therapy is based on the premise that our own automatic and often unnoticed thoughts WITHIN us, not the events that happen TO US, scare us to death which in turn create a warped reality providing fertile soil 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 noticed and 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 his clear writing, 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 many years of doom and suffering, I refocused and 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. In my opinion, Feeling Good Workbook is so effective, 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.

Even though the system sounds simplistic, its power lies in consistency of application-easier said than done for the depressed and unmotivated-but it does become easier if you find it within yourself to stick with it.

If this is pretty much the same book as the one written 20 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 20 years ago, offers a real tool for change, and this fact alone, deserves all the stars in the skies.

Rating: 5 / 5

Dr. Burns incorporates the last 25 years of research and clinical developments since writing the best-seller FEELING GOOD (strongly recommended as well.) He has written a book which markedly refines and elaborates on FEELING GOOD, rendering the Cognitive Therapy approach found in FEELING GOOD even more effective for quick and long-term relief from distressing emotional conditions, including depression, anxiety, anger, and low-self esteem.

In case you don’t know, the book FEELING GOOD has been clinically proven to relieve major depression JUST FROM READING IT and following its instructions. I am confident that a clinical trial on WHEN PANIC ATTACKS would yield similar results for individuals suffering from anxiety disorders. The new book is very readable and far more versatile, and addresses some of the implicit gaps left from the former book.

WHEN PANIC ATTACKS easily stands on its own, and doesn’t just address panic attacks, but rather every conceivable type of anxiety, including chronic worrying, phobias, agoraphobia, shyness, public speaking anxiety, writer’s block, procrastination, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. As far as I am concerned, Dr. Burns should win a Nobel Prize for what he has accomplished here. Beginning with the “Daily Mood Log” –a sophisticated yet elegantly simple worksheet for documenting and combating one’s emotional pain– he has developed a veritable “technology” for overcoming even the most disabling of human emotions.

Why do we suffer? We suffer because we hold onto some core self-defeating beliefs (SDB’s) that leave us rather vulnerable to painful mood swings. Accordingly, he identifies 23 common SDB’s. Many of these SDB’s (such as Achievement Addiction, Approval Addiction, Fear of Rejection, Conflict Phobia, and Emotophobia) are far more widespread than even the common cold! All of our emotional suffering can be traced back to the SDB’s that are always there, lurking somewhat hidden beneath our suffering, until we take the courageous and pro-active step to identify and revise them. He then provides 40 ways to “untwist” your thinking, divided into 15 types of methods. These types of techniques include Uncovering Techniques, Compassion-Based Techniques, Truth-Based Techniques, Semantic Techniques, Logic-Based, Quantitative Techniques, Humor-Based Techniques, Role-Playing Techniques, Spiritual Techniques, Motivational Techniques, Anti-Procrastination Techniques, Classical, Cognitive, and Interpersonal Exposure Techniques, and last but not least, the Hidden Emotion Model.

He additionally shows you how to select the techniques that will work best for YOU, and the whole trial-and-error process is easily recorded onto another handy-dandy worksheet! By encouraging you to “fail as fast as you can” (a brilliant concept in its own right!), he clearly demonstrates how anyone who is serious about their mental health and overall well-being can overcome even deep-seated emotional problems, and thereby attain robust self-esteem. He even provides specific and simple methods for “relapse prevention,” because, as he states, EVERYONE relapses! Surely there’s a BIG difference between FEELING better and GETTING better.

Because Thoreau was correct when he said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” I think it would be a tragedy to limit this book to those with mental health diagnoses. In fact, I cannot think of a single individual who would not be significantly helped by the information contained in this book. ********** 10 Stars on a scale of 5!

Rating: 5 / 5

As someone who struggled with panic attacks for over 25 years, I have read a lot of books about anxiety. I now plan to get rid of all of the others! I read Dr. Burns’ Feeling Good at my lowest point last year and it was a lifeline for me. That book focuses more on depression, and while some of the information in it applied to anxiety, I kept wishing he would write a book specifically on anxiety. This book has advice and exercises for every type of anxiety. Whether you have job performance anxiety, social anxiety, fear of riding in elevators or having blood drawn, the tools you need to overcome your fears are in here.

The key is–and Dr. Burns reinforces this point–you have to do the exercises in order to feel better. This means actually writing your answers on paper. It also means, in many cases, facing your fears. His methods combine exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. His words are warm and humorous, and you will feel supported as you break down barriers you may have built up for years.

Dr. Burns has improved my life immeasurably. I, and all of my loved ones who have had to suffer along with me for so many years, are grateful! Buy this book and try the exercises.
Rating: 5 / 5

There may not be anything new in this work, re: cognitive distortions, but this is still the gold-standard resource for those of us who suffer from this insidious malady know as Panic Disorder.

Dr. Burns book is not an easy read, meaning it does not offer quick, feel-good answers like so many pop-psych./pseudo-psych. books do. His work is written in a way that heavy involvement of the reader/patient is necessary in order to modify the maladaptive thinking and information processing that plagues people of our ilk.

The excercises are tedious and numerous to be sure. But then again, there are no easy answers for combatting panic.

This book is highly recommended by me because it has literally changed my life. Relief from suffering was quicker than what years of therapy was supposed to do for me. Like I said, there may not be anything “new,” but to the average person who is not steeped in the literature the way a professional clinician would be, this makes no difference.

Dr. Burns has performed a valuable public health service by writing this book. Get it for yourself, or for anyone you know who may be suffering from this dreadful condition. It will change your/their life…for good and for the better.
Rating: 5 / 5

The information and techniques presented in this book changed my life in a profound way. Not only have I become a FAR less anxious individual in general, but I have the tools to combat every type of mood swing imaginable. My self esteem is at heights I could have never imagined. Whether you panic left and right, have mild anxiety, or are simply a human being, I GUARANTEE this book is worth your time. This is the real stuff: researched based and tested over and over again.

Also, while I agree that a lot of this information is the same that has appeared in Burns’ older classics “Feeling Good” and the “Feeling Good Handbook” I do find that it is presented in a more organized, easy to digest format that is focused on anxiety instead of depression. Despite containing the same underlying theories, it has expansions, re-organizations, and specifics that I feel easily make it a worthwhile addition to the Burns catalog.

I, obviously, wholeheartedly and passionately recommend this book for ANYONE.

Rating: 5 / 5