How To Control Your Anxiety Before It Controls You (Hardcover)

by Albert Ellis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Dr. Ellis provides readers with scores of thinking, feeling, and action methods for controlling anxiety. The book describes many real cases that Dr. Ellis has treated successfully, including those that deal with performance anxiety, as well as social, job hunting, love, sex, and other forms of anxiety.

From AudioFile
In the 1970s the late author was a pioneer in a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes the value of thinking in managing one's emotions. In this abridgment you'll hear an accessible reading of Ellis's core thinking and prescriptions. Though few in mental health circles today look to Ellis for ideas about emotional health, this pleasant volume is strikingly relevant and will be especially useful to people who enjoy approaching their emotional lives with a sense of control. The program encourages us to distinguish between what we can and cannot control, and says we can choose how we shape our beliefs about various life events. It's especially cogent and helpful on the problem of setting unreasonably high personal standards. T.W. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: Citadel (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559724773
• ISBN-13: 978-1559724777
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #838,467 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy read; comprehensive action methods to control anxiety, June 24, 2001

By	J. Lizzi (Costa Mesa, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A little too vague for me., December 13, 2006

By	Up1tree (Cali) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Control Your Anxiety Before It Controls You (Paperback)

I couldn't relate to the scenarios in the book very well as a lot of them dealt with social anxiety and seemingly less complex issues than I was looking for, but it was a good informative book none the less.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this Book to Control Your Unnecessary Anxiety, April 21, 2008

By	bronx book nerd (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Control Your Anxiety Before It Controls You (Paperback)

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.