A good life skills book, anyone? Recommendations?

Hey folks,

I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good life skills book or online link to a .pdf to me. Preferrably something geared to agoraphobia, panic attack and depression-managing people. I've felt for a long time that a lot of my suffering and self-esteem problems are due to a lack of life skills and an inability to find out how to learn them.

Hey there maxxim.

Can suggest:

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David Burns
Overcoming Anxiety by Helen Kennerly
Overcoming Anxiety for Dummies by Charles Elliott and Laura L Smith
Mind over Mood by Dennis Greenberger and Christine Padesky

Hope that helps!

Hi Nightowl,

Yea, the best book you probably would want to get is "The Feeling Good Handbook" by David Burn. I've read it, and it's pretty much what helped me overcome my panic disorder.

Also, I don't know if this helps, but check out this article, you might find some use for it.

*link removed by mod*

To your Success,

Marc C.

Ten Days to Self-Esteem by David Burns, MD is a workbook that takes you through a process of learning to deal with your thoughts, emotions or feelings, and your behavior. It was originally developed as a 10 day program for homeless people to get out of depression and anxiety, if I remember accurately.
From it, I learned how to examine any thought, fear, mood, anxiety, feeling, behavior and recognize why and how it wasn't getting the results I wanted, and gave me the tools to come up with a more rational positive response that makes sense and feels right. It does not require forcing yourself to be positive and get over a feeling, it gives you the tools to find your own truth.
For me, it is a much more valuable book than his other books,(Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, and The Feeling Good Handbook) though they are an important part of my library.
I suffered from chronic depression (diagnosed as dysthymic disorder) from age 10 to 53, and social fears, anxiety, relationship challenges continue to some extent, though are improved vastly.
I used the "mood log" exercise to deal with the upsetting event of trying to decide to stay married or get divorced, and in 6 hours of grueling, boring, inconvenient drudgery of writing out all of the details and completing the simple processes requested, I had a clear answer and I was out of depression.
Depression does come back, but now I have the skills to recognize it, and systematically deal with it in my head, and sometimes need to write it out on paper.
I think having to interact with the book (by answering questions and writing out examples from my life, having to identify whether or not each of my thoughts had distorted thinking) gave me a much better grasp of the information.
I keep telling people, "I don't think life can get any better than this!", but then 3 months later, I am saying that again with as much conviction, and life does keep getting better and better as a result of the book, and me doing the next exercise, not skipping any exercise.

Welcome proactive.

Thank you for sharing the book recommendation. I'm glad it has helped you
But no doubt part of your success was your effort and self-discipline.

Great question and journey to take! I find that the more holistic viewpoints helped me get past my anxiety. Writers included

Gary Zukav
James Redfield
Tich Naht Hanh
Ram Dass
Chogym Trungpa Rinphoche

All these authors have valuable insights to taking it one step at a time and being in calm during the process. Best of luck.

-Brian