I drunkenly bought this book the other night because I hate myself and I totally forgot about it until it came in the mail today. Is it actually worth the read or is it trash?
>>8162443
it helped me
>>8162452
summarize it for me anon
>>8162460
1. Live in a peaceful place like a nice cabin by the lake (if you can't afford this, put up posters of nature scenery in your room)
2. Smile and say hello to everyone (literally everyone) you see.
3. Throw away all your sad music, movies, and books. Only positive sounds and stories are allowed.
4. Put more sweets and junk food in your diet because it's been proven to help depression. Don't worry about getting fat because worrying about health only adds to your stress.
5. Stop posting on 4chan. Instead post on Reddit, which is a much more positive and nurturing place.
I have this book but I've only read the first few pages. CBT is apparently proven to be successful, so if you stick to it you will probably have success.
That said, I found the rhetorical appeal to the "falsity" of negative feelings somewhat unconvincing, since positive feelings -- or feelings of any kind -- are going to likewise involve many falsehoods. Or rather, true and false are N/A to your emotions, since the stark facts of reality to tell you how you how you ought to feel about them. So I felt like Burns was sorta taking his reader to be a bit of an idiot. I would have preferred had he disregarded this whole spurious notion that your feelings could be "true" or "false," and just said simply that it is better to feel good than it is to feel bad, so you should tell yourself good lies instead of bad ones.
>>8162496
Thanks for the post. You actually outlined why I was kinda iffy about reading this book so I'll try to keep you last point in mind when I read it.
Didn't fully read into it, but it did spark my first efforts to finally start dealing with my problems. That self administered test really hit me when it came back that I was severely depressed. Been almost a year since then, and I'm feeling a lot better.
https://youtu.be/8FjmTHULtrM
>>8162479
Psych major here.
This is only half true. And if he honestly tells you to eat junk food against depression "because science has shown!" He is a quack.
OP, get rid of things that make you down,live healthy, exercise, get some sun, try to socialize in a way comfortable to you and consider mindfulness meditation (not a cure all but it helps).
But nothing is a real alternative to therapy. Even new internet programs have short coming and are frankly not ready for the market.
But just taking care of yourself and treating your brain like an organ which you must also keep healthy will do you a lot of good.
