Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life

First of all, I had a pretty rough childhood which included losing my mother at the age of 8, only 5 months after immigrating to the U.S. from Asia, and not knowing a single word of English. That, combined with a dysfunctional family to start with, left me pretty scarred growing up.

I read a ton of self-help books, and they all helped in some way. Went to a very expensive NLP therapist that charges $200/hour for about 1.5 years, and it helped me release a lot of old wounds.

After 1.5 years, I felt considerably better, so I stopped going to therapy. But I knew there were things I still wanted to work on with regards to my feelings of safety, self-esteem, and how I relate to others.

I bought this book in October 2015. In November 2015, I bought Dr. Burns's other book "Intimate Connections" and started doing the exercises in the books during my winter vacation.

The processes that worked best for me were:

- an abbreviated version of Daily Mood Log (I don't do it in exhaustive detail like the book instructed because you only work on 1 belief/thought at a time anyway. I just list the event, the anxiety level, circle the emotions and write in the amount of that emotion, then I pick one main triggering thought to that emotion/event to work on),

-the Downward Arrow/What-If techniques to get to the root cause of why I had a certain unpleasant emotion/thought,

- and Cognitive Flooding, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Feared Fantasy, and Externalization of Voices to transform my emotion and self defeating beliefs.

What I noticed was that the processes worked just as effectively and fast as my expensive NLP therapy to help me transform negative emotions and thoughts, and immediately decreased my anxiety surrounding the particular situations I worked on!

Around the same time during my winter break from work, I had read a couple of books to help me figure out my life purpose/career direction: Secret Language of Destiny and The Life You Were Born to Live. The insights these books helped me gain about myself helped me to clarify my life direction tremendously, which really helped to build confidence and self esteem.

When I got back to work in January 2016, my colleagues all noticed the difference in the way I interacted with them. People pulled me aside to one on one meetings to ask me what I'd done differently for such a positive shift in the way I carry myself and the way I interact with them. They saw me as more of a leader and more confident in myself.

This shift was made possible by releasing negative emotions and self defeating beliefs through Dr. Burns's methods and combined with a sense of clarity about my life that I never had up until that point.

Another thing that really helped me was doing the 30 minute full body meditation from the mp3 of The Realization Process to help me feel calm and connected to my essential self.

In summary, the three main things that helped me drastically improve my life were this book, The Realization Process, and the life purpose books: The Life You Were Born to Live and Secret Language of Destiny.

What's most empowering is knowing I will have these practices for the rest of my life to continually work towards releasing my self defeating behaviors and emotions so I can achieve all my goals...all on my own time, using my own efforts, without having to pay expensive therapy fees!

I ordered this for my daughter per her therapist. She has had the book for a month it has really helped her to understand what happens when she starts to have a panic attack. Gives things to do when it starts to happen. But most of all gives her facts that she isn't crazy or going to die.

From The author of "Feeling Good, The New Mood Therapy."
This is another great book! "When Panic Attacks" opens a window
of light upon the difficult subject of panic disorder, and related issues.
Dr. David D. Burns is a complete 'Breath of fresh air' on the subject of
empowering people to take control of their cognitive processes, that is
(what they are thinking about) to promote healing and brightening of
their moods, and improved personal mental health. This is the kind of
Stuff you can learn and do... that really works! Peace... -=Skip=-

I was very interested in this topic as a Psychology student and having struggled with anxiety myself. I found the product to be so helpful. I understand the intricacies of the system because I have been able to research it well and what was most important was that I found that this book touched on key aspects that some psychologists may miss and I actually learned even more. Dr. Burns does an excellent job explaining the technique using humour and side stories. I really enjoyed this book, I will be buying more from Dr. Burns. If you have any type of anxiety, this book will help you. The amount you will be helped will DEPEND on one thing - if you dedicate yourself to doing the work! Just keep picking up the paper and doing the work for everything. When I was going through anxiety I only started getting better when I DID THE WORK. Remember - your judgements and evaluations of the process and your own anxiety are NOT devoid of the process - they should be treated the same as any other anxiety or depressive cognition.

As someone who has struggled with anxiety for many years, I cannot reccommend this book enough. I'm in my early 20s and have already been on and off medication/therapy for years. When I started to feel like I was losing control I decided to take matters into my own hands and this book has helped me tremendously.

One thing of note: do not get this book unless you are serious about getting to the root of your problems and willing to work to feel better. It requires you to examine your thoughts and feelings and complete exercises that will help you think and feel better.

It is great for those looking for real change. For people looking for some magical cure without putting in any effort: look elsewhere.

Its OK, but definitely not the best tool ive found. If youre thinking of buying this, buy the DARE book..its 100% better. Half of this book is homework, feels like its written in 1970....new things are out there and this book feels too much like a visit to a therapist.

Dr. David Burns has written a couple of outstanding books which can be found in just about any good therapist's library, Feeling Good and the Feeling Good Handbook. He is a highly renowned psychiatrist from Stanford School of Medicine where he has done extensive work on brain chemistry. This book is a good read as well if you want to dump some aggravating fears and phobia. Highly recommend.

'When Panic Attacks' is very easy to read and understand.

I found it enlightening and very helpful.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is feeling anxious and suffering
from panic attacks.

Margaret.

Definitely the most helpful book that I have ever read in regard to treatment of anxiety. I would recommend trying this book before drug therapy. This really will work if you do the written exercises, especially in the first several chapters.

This book is so helpful in understanding what panic is! There are quite a few techniques which can be confusing but Dr. Burns really goes in depth in explaining them. Highly recommend for those with anxiety / panic disorders.

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.

Solid information. Very helpful and practical.

Personally, i think the daily mood log can be revised and shortened; i found the whole 'writing every single emotion down for every thought' kind of a waste of time. Not that's it's useless, but in the practical sense it is; you won't end up using most of the daily mood log.

Also, font, spacing and book are slightly too big - the books all spaghetti-like cause of this.

I have read the book almost entirely and have been pretty disappointed. the title "when Panic attacks" is quite misleading because the book almost doesn't discuss "Panic Attacks". The book is very good for people seeking help for many anxiety disorders for moderate conditions. the techniques expressed in the book are all great ones but written very short.

This book is really great. His best one yet. It was like being in his office and listening to him. Although serious about his work, his sense of humor is apparent. I don't have panic attacks, but if such should occur I would reread the book and do the exercises. Thank you Dr. David Burns.

This book is really great. His best one yet. It was like being in his office and listening to him. Although serious about his work, his sense of humor is apparent. I don't have panic attacks, but if such should occur I would reread the book and do the exercises. Thank you Dr. David Burns.