Customer Reviews

How To Control Your Anxiety Before It Controls You

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At the time I bought this book, I was unaware of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, had never heard of Dr. Albert Ellis, and wasn't really looking to solve any particular anxiety problem of my own. Always a fan of Dale Carnegie's "How to ..." instructional writings, I figured this would be a new perspective on a popular and important subject. What I learned was that Dr. Ellis has extensive experience (since 1943) in psychotherapy and actually devised REBT in 1955. Like Carnegie, he is quite good at putting his research and wisdom into books (more than sixty), and turning this knowledge into useful information for those who might be trying to solve a problem related to emotion and personality.

To me, the most important part of REBT is "Rational," the exercise of thinking through what is causing anxiety, why your beliefs about it are unfounded (i.e., irrational) and unnecessary, and what you can do to convince yourself that anxiety can be lessened, if not eliminated, through a formulaic rational process. Throughout most of this book, Dr. Ellis clearly describes nearly twenty very specific methods for controlling anxiety. This was all new to me, but I found the methods to make total sense, and imagined that almost all of us could find any number of these helpful in addressing specific anxiety scenarios.

The way in which Dr. Ellis sets forth the varying aspects of REBT is impressive. He's easy to read, and almost grandfatherly in his tone. Each method is portrayed first by explanation, then by documenting a real example using one of his psychotherapy patients. The last three chapters contain 231 "Rational Maxims" which sum up the main points of the methods discussed in detail earlier, and are written in the first person for us to recite when REBT enforcement is needed. Good idea! Some might find this book to be a little repetitive (therapy is like that), and thus may be better off with the abridged version. For someone new to REBT, I'm glad Dr. Ellis presented these methods in a comprehensive manner, and I'll always have the Rational Maxims for review on short order.

When I started college I was a complete and utter anxious ship-wreck. I couldn't sleep, think straight, and felt like I was going to lose my mind. Basic daily tasks suddenly became terrifying or anxiety provoking. It was a scary and exhausting time for me.

On the edge, I went to see my school counselor. She recommended I read Ellis's books and his Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy style. I have to admit, I expected very little. Honestly, I felt like she had passed the buck and gave me a book instead of helping me. However, I was desperate and would have tried anything short of an exorcism to feel better. I read his first book, "A new guide to rational living." (I would recommend reading that book before this one, it gives more background. This book is still good, too.) I was astonished. Within a few weeks, I legitimately felt noticeably better. Nearly two years later, I can honestly say his books changed my life and multiple friends and family members who have borrowed my books.

It takes time and won't happen all at once. As Ellis would say, you spent a life time learning how to be anxious, and can't undo that in a day. It took me about a year to get much better, two years to completely change my life, and three to be an entirely new person. I am deeply saddened that Ellis died recently. I would have loved to thank him for completely overhauling my life and making me a much happier, outgoing, and less anxious person. Now, I plan to study abroad in a foreign country. This is something the old me could have never handled.

PS. Dr Ellis is in fact a well respected psychologist. Even the great Beck recognizes his work. Ellis' work is based on his empirical studies with real patients he counseled throughout his long career. His stuff is not Dr.Phil style non-sense like "You're like a shoe with no strings," or the ever classic Dr.Phil statement "get over it!" I hate when people tease psychological books because Dr. Phil (and others like him) poisoned the entire genre. "Those" people are first and foremost entertainers. Dr.Ellis is real, and his work actually helps, but it takes time!!!

Albert Ellis is, in my opinion, one of the great minds in psychology of the last 100 years. His name does not come as easily from peoples' mouths when they talk about the greats who have studied and helped solve mind problems for many, many people. You will always hear about Freud, Jung, Rogers et al, but hardly ever about Ellis. This work, as well as his many others, are why he should be among those in that pantheon.

Ellis claims, rightly, that it is not just events that affect how we feel but our reactions to those events. Now, most psychological texts stop there. It has become almost a cliche - it's not what happens to you, but how you react to what happens to you, that makes the difference. Ellis' insight is that when your reaction creates extreme emotions - depression, rage or anxiety - it is because you are holding irrational beliefs, mostly under the category of musts, self-downing, catastrophizing and overgeneralizations, e.g. I must do well on my job interview or I am a total incompetent who will never get a good job and will always be seen as a loser. Hard to believe that this is how we think but put it to the test. Uncovering those irrational beliefs, and replacing them with rational beliefs, is a key to personal emotional liberation and productivity.

Ellis' writing is straightforward and practical. Perhaps the reason he is not as renowned as other therapists is that he doesn't engage in tedious philosophical wanderings about the psyche - he gets right to the point.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who struggles with anxiety. Read it and truly help yourself.

I have read other Albert Ellis books and there are some things that are the same but there are different self talk suggestions for anxiety. The book is set up so that the important ideas and suggestions are easy to find they are numbered and listed together.

I have found that his books are very helpful he speaks of how a person thinks when they make themselves anxious he lays out what you are saying to yourself and what thoughts you need to change to be less anxious. Most other books I have read have case histories where people who used the author's formula and got better, there are some examples of that in this book but Dr. Ellis isn't offering pie in the sky answers he is very practical in his expectations of success.

I used Dr. Ellis' books in conjunction with therapy and found it to be very helpful to change how I see life and I think that is why I am having less problems with depression these days.

This is the single best self-help book I've ever read. Before beginning it, anxiety had crippled me. Why? I had been taught or learned to think irrationally. Ellis' method is nothing more or less than a way of teaching you how to think rationally in a world that encourages us to think irrationally. Ellis gives you a thousand weapons with which to attack the irrationality that creates anxiety and anxiety attacks, and it works, and it works fast. But you have to use it. Thanks to this book and Ellis' REBT theory, I was also led to SMART Recovery, which has a Facebook fan page here [...]
At long last, rational solutions for substance abuse, too, nased on REBT. I recommend anyone experiencing anxiety buy this book immediately and at the expense of any and all others.

Not one of the best books I've read on the topic of anxiety. It seemed as though much of the book's focus was on peddling the merits of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy rather than providing workable strategies to assist in the treatment of anxiety. I found the writing to be disengaging with the inclusion of some unusual case studies which did nothing to enhance the quality of the book. I would instead recommend When Anxiety Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life by David Burns, a far more practical and user-friendly book.

This book has certainly helped me overcome my anxiety. A must read for anyone suffering with anxiety disorders but do not want to succumb to medications.

Maybe it's me but I prefer to read Dr. Ellis' books to the tapes. The tapes just don't seem to have the impact,at least for me.This one went on and on about some guy's sex life and learning how to come correctly. I'm not a prude but I would hesitate to loan this to my mother or someone not as comfortable with blunt sexual language.Still I have a great deal of respect for REBT and like the books.

This was a great book! It came in a very timely manner, and it was in a great condition!