Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Read Online Free PDF Page B

psychotherapy in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and other disorders. The results of these studies have been quite encouraging. Researchers haveconfirmed our early impressions that cognitive therapy was at least as effective as medications, and often more effective, both in the short term and in the long term.
    What does this all add up to? We are experiencing a crucial development in modern psychiatry and psychology—a promising new approach to understanding human emotions based on a cogent testable therapy. Large numbers of mental-health professionals are now showing a great interest in this approach, and the ground swell seems to be just beginning.
    Since the first edition of Feeling Good in 1980, many thousands of depressed individuals have been successfully treated with cognitive therapy. Some had considered themselves hopelessly unbeatable and came to us as a last-ditch effort before commmitting suicide. Many others were simply troubled by the nagging tensions of daily living and wanted a greater share of personal happiness. This book is a carefully thought-out practical application of our work, and it is designed for you. Good luck!

Chapter 2
How to Diagnose Your Moods: The First Step in the Cure
    Perhaps you are wondering if you have in fact been suffering from depression. Let’s go ahead and see where you stand. The Burns Depression Checklist (BDC) (see Table 2–1, page 20) is a reliable mood-measuring device that detects the presence of depression and accurately rates its severity. * This simple questionnaire will take only a few minutes to complete. After you have completed the BDC, I will show you how to make a simple interpretation of the results, based on your total score. Then you will know immediately whether or not you are suffering from a true depression and, if so, how severe it is. I will also lay out some important guidelines to help you determine whether you can safely and effectively treat your own blue mood using this book as your guide, or whether you have a more serious emotional disorder and might benefit from professional intervention in addition to your own efforts to help yourself.
    As you fill out the questionnaire, read each item carefully and put a checkin the box that indicates how you have been feeling during the past few days. Make sure you check one answer for each of the twenty-five items.
    If in doubt, make your best guess. Do not leave any questions unanswered. Regardless of the outcome, this can be your first step toward emotional improvement.
    Table 2–1. Burns Depression Checklist *

    *Copyright © 1984 by David D. Burns, M.D. (Revised, 1996.)
    **Anyone with suicidal urges should seek help from a mental health professional.
    Interpreting the Burns Depression Checklist . Now that you have completed the test, add up the score for each of the twenty-five items and obtain the total. Since the highest score you can get on each of the twenty-five symptoms is 4, the highest score for the whole test would be 100. (This would indicate the most severe depression possible.) Since the lowest score for each item is 0, the lowest score for the test would be zero. (This would indicate no symptoms of depression at all.)
    You can now evaluate your depression according to Table 2–2. As you can see, the higher the total score, the more severe your depression. In contrast, the lower the score, the better you are feeling.
    Although the BDC is not difficult or time-consuming to fill out and score, don’t be deceived by its simplicity. You have just learned to use a highly sophisticated tool for detecting depression and measuring its severity. Research studies have demonstrated that the BDC is highly accurate and reliable. Studies in a variety of settings, such as psychiatric emergency rooms, have indicated that instruments of this type actually pick up the presence of depressive symptoms far more frequently than formal interviews by experienced clinicians.
Table 2–2 . Interpreting the Burns