David D. Burns

The Feeling Good Handbook and its list of cognitive distortions

David Burns is a psychiatrist who turned the patterns of a low mood into a list anyone can use. The Feeling Good Handbook gives you worksheets to catch them.

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The Feeling Good Handbook and its list of cognitive distortions, on Astera

Burns lists ten patterns. They include all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralisation, mental filter, jumping to conclusions and should statements. For each one he gives a way to answer back.

Feeling Good came out in 1980 and the Handbook followed in 1989. We love how usable it is. You can open it on a bad afternoon and fill in a page.

Burns on how a thought becomes a mood

  1. When you change the way you think, you can change the way you feel.
  2. Depression and anxiety are the world’s oldest cons.Burns means a low mood usually rests on a thought that isn't true.
  3. All-or-nothing thinking.Catch it when you call a whole day ruined by one bad hour.
  4. Should statements.

Five patterns to catch

The exercise in the free Astera workspace takes five of Burns's patterns. They're all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophising, mind reading, personalisation and shoulds. You match five sample thoughts to them, then see a question for each.

The questions ask you to check whether the thing you told yourself is true.

Try Cognitive Distortions

We built Cognitive Distortions into the free Astera workspace to go with this book. Your answers save as you go.

Try it

The book itself is The Feeling Good Handbook by David D. Burns.

Questions

What are cognitive distortions?

Patterns of thinking that make a situation look worse than the evidence says. Burns built his list of ten on the work of the psychiatrist Aaron Beck.

Should I read Feeling Good or the Handbook?

Feeling Good centres on depression. The Handbook covers anxiety and communication as well, and has more worksheets.

Is a self-help book a substitute for therapy?

No. It's a set of tools that came out of a therapy. If you're carrying more than an ordinary bad week, talk to your GP or a therapist.

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