Book Review: All Therapy Books

There's definitely a discussion about whether CBT should always be the therapy of choice. Personally, I think you need to be at the right spot for CBT to be effective. For me, I was a functional person who could somewhat identify what I didn't like about my mental state and was very open to trying to improve. I'm guessing CBT is probably not as effective if you're experiencing severe mental health problems or breaks in reality, or if you have milder symptoms but don't want help/change. Sometimes when I'm really down, CBT essentially feels like "you're sad because you're too stupid to be happy!" At the same time, I imagine every therapy works better if a person is at an okay spot and open to change. And CBT can probably help people all over the spectrum to various degrees.

If you're experiencing mental health problems, give The Feeling Good Handbook a try! It's a large workbook where you read and work through written exercises. Very helpful to me so I try to evangelize it when I can (and give out copies to people I know who struggle). I never tried in person therapy but that'd also be immensely helpful too. The great thing about CBT is how simple it is though, so reading a book (aka bibliotherapy) for a self-motivated patient can do the trick. Indeed, he spends the first chapter reviewing studies that claim bibliotherapy is just as successful as in person therapy. (Not sure what I think of that... I imagine book readers are more self-motivated than the average in-person patient but they were experimental studies so I'm sure that's already controlled for... nevertheless, bibliotherapy was good for me.

About me: I lost my dad in high school, my mom in college, and my sister to suicide after graduating. Pair that with an interesting childhood (alcoholic mom, bipolar sister) albeit a financially comfortable childhood. It was (and still can be) an incredibly hard stretch of time. At the same time, I was exceptionally gifted at school and really looked up to my teachers so I was and am very lucky and traditionally successful. If you're struggling, get help! Take responsibility! Your mind CAN change in small but subtle ways in how you frame your life and the daily happenings of it.

It's not a therapy book really; it's listed in the self-help genre. Still, I love it because it talks about all the problems with self-help books. The author goes to motivational talks, finds a person who grudgingly and unenthusiastically yell, "I'm so motivated" and later tells the author his trip to the talk was paid for by the parks department he worked for; he don't really want to be there.

The author does a deep dive into what's wrong with the motivation book culture in general, how we should not be afraid of our failures or how the quest to feel good all the time might be to our detriment. It's a great read.

The article here seems to be arguing more that all therapy books are either the same or claim their method is better when it's not significantly different, or they promise exergerant claims of totally turning ones life around when they really don't; how therapy is often a slow though out process with gradual changes.

It seems to fit inline with stuff in The Antidote from the perceptive of self-help books. It's a good read.

I don't think "placebo effect" is an adequate term when the benefit from a therapy derives from the work patients put in. It's more like dieting than like a drug. Faith in the program helps people invest the required work and persevere through difficulties and setbacks. The impulse to give up, to take a break, to skip the work today, this impulse preys on doubt. In this dynamic, the differences in inherent effectiveness between one method and another can be dwarfed by the power of one treatment having superior marketing and inspiring people to work harder, persist through greater discomfort, and eventually have a greater likelihood of achieving results — which will of course be credited to the theoretical ideas underpinning the therapy instead of the marketing.