anxiety & depression

NON-FICTION

FEELING GOOD BY DAVID BURNS

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, written by American psychiatrist Dr. David D. Burns and first published in 1980, popularized cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). It is the book that has been most used in the bibliotherapy arm of research studies looking at treatment of depression. Burns explains how one’s mood is influenced by thoughts and behaviours. He details how to identify and challenge cognitive distortions, and techniques to self-activate. He addresses anger, guilt, approval seeking, perfectionism, and hopelessness. He includes examples and exercises throughout the book.

RESEARCH STUDIES

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Mind over mood by Dennis Greenberger & Christine A. Padesky

Mind over Mood; Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think, is a cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) workbook written by clinical psychologists Dr. Dennis Greenberger and Dr. Christine Padesky, and first published in 1995. The book covers the connection between thoughts, moods, behaviours and physical reactions. It teaches about automatic and hot thoughts, thought records, underlying assumptions, core beliefs, behavioural experiments, and fear ladders, and includes over 50 worksheets.

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the anxiety & phobia workbook by edmund j bourne

Dr. Edmund Bourne is an American psychologist and anxiety researcher, whose Anxiety & Phobia Workbook was first published in 1990. Now in its seventh edition, it has sold more than 1 million copies. This is a comprehensive and practical book that gives an overview of anxiety disorders and ways to address them, including exercise, coping with panic attacks, exposure for phobias, self-talk and core beliefs, strategies to overcome worry, medications, meditation, and spirituality.

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get out of your mind & into your life: the new acceptance and commitment therapy by s.c. hayes

Get Out of Your Mind & Into Your Life, by American clinical psychologist Steven Hayes, PhD and published in 2005, is about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT distinguishes between pain as an unavoidable aspect of being human, and the suffering that is caused by trying to avoid or control it. ACT focuses on giving up one’s resistance to painful experiences, assessing one’s values, and choosing to live a present, vital, meaningful life. The book covers the universality of human suffering, avoidance versus acceptance, the impact of our thoughts, mindfulness, choosing values, and committing to live by them, and contains many exercises and worksheets.

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The Mindful Way through Depression
by MARK Williams, jOHN Teasdale, zINDEL Segal, & j0N Kabat-Zinn

This book, published in 2007, is co-authored by Mark Williams, DPhil, a Founding Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre; John Teasdale, PhD, a cognition researcher at Oxford and Cambridge; Zindel Segal, PhD, Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders at the University of Toronto; and Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, Professor of Medicine Emeritus and founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The book and accompanying CD offer a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) program, a series of practices to incorporate into daily life, including awareness of breath, body scans, being in the present moment, reconnecting with feelings, and viewing thoughts as passing mental events.

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THE NOONDAY DEMON: AN ATLAS OF DEPRESSION BY ANDREW SOLOMON

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression is a memoir by Andrew Solomon, writer and Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center, published in 2001. It has won several awards and was a finalist for the Pultizer Prize for General Non-Fiction. The book examines depression from a personal, cultural and scientific perspective. It is over 500 pages, and is extensively researched with a bibliography of approximately 1000 titles.

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CREATIVE

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darkness visible: A MEMOIR OF MADNESS by william styron

This memoir by American writer William Styron, initially published as a condensed version in Vanity Fair in 1989, chronicles his depressive illness and recovery. His book was groundbreaking in that it brought awareness to depression at a time when it was highly stigmatized. The book is a very slim volume, easily read in one sitting.

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Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression edited by Nell Casey

Unholy Ghost is a collection of essays about depression, edited by American journalist Nell Casey and published in 2002. The book is introduced by Kay Redfield Jamison, who refers to the book as “a reader on melancholy.” The essays are diverse; some are written by sufferers of depression, and others by those who lived with them. Contributors include William Styron, Donald Hall, and Susanna Kaysen.

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THE POETRY PHARMACY BY WILLIAM SIEGHART

The Poetry Pharmacy — Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul is a collection of poems dispensed by William Sieghart, British publisher, poetry advocate, and library champion. This book prescribes poems for over fifty common human conditions, including anxiety (The Peace of Wild Things, by Wendell Berry), self-recrimination (Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver), emotional repression (The Guest House, by Rumi) and oppression (Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou). The book is physically pleasing, with a brilliant red fabric hardcover and a ribbon bookmark. It is organized with the condition listed on the left page, followed by a reflection by Sieghart. The prescribed poem is on the facing page. I appreciated the concept and organization of the book, although I would have preferred less commentary by Sieghart (my usual complaint about poetry collections). If you visit Shropshire, you can make an appointment for a consultation with the Poetry Pharmacist for a personal prescription. While I won’t be using this to recommend specific poems to my psychiatric patients, I would recommend it for general reading.

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