Just feelings?

I started reading Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns. This is the second book I ordered in an attempt to deal with my struggles with a low self-esteem. I am learning through this book of the amazing breakthrough that came about with "Cognitive Therapy". This book serves as a means of "bibliotherapy" a fairly new method of psychotherapy, which is where a person reads a book as a form of counseling such as this book. Studies indicated that some people who only read this book and practiced its principles overcame depression quicker and the effects lasted longer than those who were taking antidepressants in conjunction with psychotherapy. In case you think I have my wires crossed, Dr. Burns refers to a study done on the effectiveness of reading self-help books such as this one and says, "They discovered that Feeling Good bibliotherapy may be as effective as a full course of psychotherapy or treatment with the best antidepressant drugs" (xxiii).

In the first chapter, Dr. Burns speaks of depression being so common that "it is considered the common cold of psychiatric disturbances" (9). But he does well in pointing out that the difference between depression and a common cold as that depression could lead a person to commit suicide. He suggests the following positive effects of this type of psychotherapy.

1. Rapid Symptomatic Improvement: This means that one's symptoms can be relieved in as soon as 12 weeks.
2. Understanding: This is in reference to the understanding of why people like me get into these downcast moods and whether such negative emotions are normal or problematic.
3. Self-Control: "I will guide you as you develop a practical, realistic, step-by-step self-help plan" (11).
4. Prevention and Personal Growth: The way this happens is through "a reassessment of some basic values and attitudes which lie at the core of your tendency toward painful depressions" (ibid).

The point of all of this is to say that according to David D. Burns, our feelings do not just come from nowhere but they come directly from our thought patterns. I have seen the positive results of this with my relationship with my fiancée. We had a problem yesterday and after enjoying the church service we participated in and starting to understand her as a result of reading a book about women which helped me to understand her more, she couldn't continue to be mad at me and I have continued down that path as much as possible today.

I am a little bit worried about reading this book, though. For some reason, as I read Shame & Grace: Healing the Shame We Don't Deserve during the last two weeks, I felt more shame or perhaps I was just made aware of the shame and I responded to Sinae more sharply than I had in the past. But I think I want to see if this book can help me overcome my struggles of a lack of self-confidence.