spuds
15-11-06, 20:27
I sent off for this book from America having seen it mentioned as helpful. I must say I was very disappointed. It is a very, very, very simple account of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy tools to help anxiety and depression.
Firstly, the book is very thin, (112 pages), the print is large and widely spaced and the chapters short - i.e. there is really not much in it either in terms of actual volume of information or substance.
He gives an account of how he went to a number of therapists to overcome his anxiety due to an unsupportive father and the death of his mother when he was a child, but only made progress after beginning CBT. He then goes through the usual thinking errors that anxiety sufferers make such as jumping to conclusions and blowing things out of proportion.
Obitz then introduces TEA forms - a simple version of the CBT exercise of writing down your irrational thoughts and a rational response. His headings are Thought, Error (how this is wrong, eg you are jumping to conclusions), Analysis (a sensible, rational response to what you are thinking).
And well, that's it really. I didn't even feel he gave any great insight into what it is like to suffer from anxiety, unlike Claire Weekes books' where you think, 'Yes, that's just how I feel sometimes'.
Sorry to sound negative, but I was very curious about this book and was hugely disappointed. It's only good point I think is that it is very basic and simplistic, but I didn't feel at all empowered by it. A better buy is David Burns "Feeling Good, the New Mood Therapy" - this is harder to read but much more detailed.
Firstly, the book is very thin, (112 pages), the print is large and widely spaced and the chapters short - i.e. there is really not much in it either in terms of actual volume of information or substance.
He gives an account of how he went to a number of therapists to overcome his anxiety due to an unsupportive father and the death of his mother when he was a child, but only made progress after beginning CBT. He then goes through the usual thinking errors that anxiety sufferers make such as jumping to conclusions and blowing things out of proportion.
Obitz then introduces TEA forms - a simple version of the CBT exercise of writing down your irrational thoughts and a rational response. His headings are Thought, Error (how this is wrong, eg you are jumping to conclusions), Analysis (a sensible, rational response to what you are thinking).
And well, that's it really. I didn't even feel he gave any great insight into what it is like to suffer from anxiety, unlike Claire Weekes books' where you think, 'Yes, that's just how I feel sometimes'.
Sorry to sound negative, but I was very curious about this book and was hugely disappointed. It's only good point I think is that it is very basic and simplistic, but I didn't feel at all empowered by it. A better buy is David Burns "Feeling Good, the New Mood Therapy" - this is harder to read but much more detailed.