There is wealth of self-help books out there and it can be overwhelming deciding which ones will be most useful. In this article, I list and describe some of the books that I have found most useful in relation to specific problems, in a bid to make choosing the book for you a bit easier!

For Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

My book of choice is “Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – A self-help guide using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques” by David Veale and Rob Willson. This book is a clear and practical step-by-step guide to regaining control of your OCD and your life! The book contains a CBT approach that is specifically aimed at OCD. This is very important since some CBT approaches used to treat other problems such as anxiety and depression can be unhelpful when applied to OCD. This book is applicable to OCD in it’s varying forms, e.g. for those who experience pure obsessions, for those who carry out internal mental rituals and for those who display compulsive behaviours. What I like about this book is that it is very frank and can help to show the person with OCD that they need not be ashamed of the content of their intrusive thoughts, images and urges. Some of the people I work with using CBT have found that they need help in applying the book from a therapist.

For Depression

I recommend ” The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Depression” by William Knaus. This book combines Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy and common sense in an easy to follow format that includes practical exercises that can help you find your way out of a depressive state. By practicing the techniques presented in the book, you can learn the skills to defeat depressive thinking. The book takes into account all factors related to being depressed that can make any action difficult and gives you tips on how to deal with procrastination, lack of energy and motivation.

I also recommend “The Mindful way Through Depression – Freeing Yourself From Chronic Unhappiness” by Williams, Teasdale, Segal and Zinn. Mindfulness is a technique that has its origins in Buddhism but that is used without any religious connotations within the field of cognitive therapy to help people learn to break the cycle of mental habits such as rumination and self-blame which perpetuate depression. Mindfulness involves disengaging from this type of mental activity. This book is written in the format of a program and includes a CD to follow of guided mindfulness meditation practices.

Mindfulness techniques are very useful for anxiety and OCD disorders also.

For Anxiety and Stress

A useful book that I use with people seeking CBT therapy, Edinburgh is “The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook” by Edmund Bourne. This is a really comprehensive book that gives step-by-step guidance in overcoming anxiety and covers various factors including relaxation and meditation skills, exercise, coping with panic, dealing with negative self-talk and irrational beliefs, visualisation, self-esteem, medication, nutrition and more.

Finally a book that it more general but useful for anxiety, depression or stress is “Mind Over Mood – Change the Way you Feel by Changing The Way You Think” by Greenberger and Padesky This is a simple to follow book that really targets illogical and irrational thinking styles that drive depression and anxiety. It includes worksheets to follow.

Finally, its important to remember when considering a book to begin self-help that like therapy, self-help books and the exercises they direct you to do, must be practiced diligently and consistently in order to work.

The most successful treatment approach to dealing with anxiety is through the application of Cognitive therapy since anxiety is a reaction to our thinking, beliefs and underlying assumptions about life. It is usually not our primary anxiousness that creates our distress. It is our secondary thoughts and feelings – the “anxiety about our anxiety” that intensifies our symptoms.

Almost everyone experiences anxiety, but not everyone catastrophizes about it. Let’s say you are taking a midterm exam in college. There are several ways you might respond when you open the test booklet and note that there are numerous questions that you are not prepared to answer. First, you might respond by saying, “wow, none of these answers look familiar. I don’t remember studying for us- I’m going to flunk this test. If I fail it, there goes my grade for the semester. Wait until my parents find out, they will kill me!” Or and alternative, rational response might be, “Gee, I don’t understand these first three questions – that’s okay, I’ll just take some deep breaths, relax and work on the questions that I am familiar with. Then I’ll go back and tackle the ones I couldn’t answer before.”

An individual’s manner of self-talk determines the level of anxiety. When we “awfulize” about anxiety, it tends to intensify it. When we respond rationally to our anxiety, that diminishes its effect. Rationally responding to anxious thoughts is critical to minimizing its effect.

Many people tend to believe that their panic or general anxiety “appear out of the blue.” They may feel confused and perplexed by the sudden emergence of their feelings. Cognitive therapists view anxious feelings as a byproduct of faulty thinking. There is no mystery to it. Teaching others to respond rationally to self-defeating talk is the primary goal of therapy.

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Individuals who experience panic attacks are usually troubled by symptoms such as racing heart, sweating, dread of dying, hyperventilating and a need to escape social situations. Helping individuals to manage panic attacks takes understanding and patience. Assisting people to realize that their panic is time-limited is important. Since panic tends to take on a life of its own, it is important to address the secondary symptoms or the “panic over the panic.” When people panic, they tend to magnify their symptoms through self-defeating thinking, perpetuating the attack. Teaching people to relax into their panic is necessary.

The following are some guidelines for those who experience anxiety and panic:

* Anxiety is time-limited. It is comforting to know that it always diminishes in its impact over time.

* Don’t fight with your anxiety. It only makes things worse. Lean into your anxiety, embrace it, and it will subside.

* Schedule a “worry time.” Go into a quiet room, relax and try to expose yourself to your anxieties. Try to bring on your symptoms and you will find that it is difficult to do.

* If you have a tendency to panic, create an exit strategy. Plan a way to remove yourself from anxious situations to bring relief.

* Refocus your attention away from your anxiety. For example, when people experience panic attacks that involve a racing heart, I might encourage them to do jumping jacks to demonstrate that there is nothing physically causing their symptoms. This strategy actually lightens the situation and their symptoms.

* If you are anxious, chunk things down into smaller parts. People tend to feel overwhelmed when they look at the entire picture. Rather than clean the entire house, pick a few specific tasks such as shredding a few unnecessary documents.

* Stay in the present. Don’t rehash your history or anticipate your future. Worrying about your future or history serves no useful purpose. You can’t control it anyway. Cognitive therapy emphasizes replacing self-defeating thinking with more rational ways are responding to stressors. Identifying goals of therapy, approaching them in a practical manner, and providing homework assignments are significant ingredients to addressing anxiety.
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Health anxiety can be treated effectively with CBT therapy. The approach used is very similar to that used for treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

This involves helping the person with the anxiety to realise that the current way they are dealing with the worrying health thought and feeling, actually keeps the problem going. Factors that keep the problem going include: trying to block the thought, giving health thoughts over -importance such as “It means I will never get better”, constantly seeking reassurance from others, reassuring self with certain phrases or thoughts, looking on the Internet, seeing numerous health practitioners, stopping life activities and giving the thought lots of attention.

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CBT therapy, can help you to accept that in fact your problem is not that you have a health problem and must constantly check whether this problem is real, but that your problem is that you worry too much about your health and that this is what’s keeping your anxiety going.

A CBT therapist, will help you become habituated to your anxious health thoughts, which basically means learning to accept your thoughts, let them come and welcome them in. They are just thoughts, not the truth or a prediction of your future. Accepting and letting our thoughts in, will trigger more anxiety at first but if you practice this regularly then your anxiety will naturally fade. This is called exposure therapy and must be done alongside a technique called response prevention, which means not seeking reassurance or trying to make the thoughts feel better!

Practising a form of meditation called mindfulness can help you develop the tools to accept unpleasant thoughts and feelings without trying to change them. This acceptance will mean that you will be able to overcome your problem. It’s the worry that is keeping it going.

A child who has moved into a higher school would be stressed because his parents back home would expect him to excel because the amount of competition is high. A middle aged man has to toil harder by working even after his office hours to hold onto his job because his company is reducing the number of employees.

We just saw two instances which makes people suffer from anxiety and if you think anxiety is a simple word, then think again. Anxiety may cause distress and may severely affect a person’s life. The range of intensity may vary but yet the results are dangerous. You may wonder how come people do not get affected even though anxiety is quite normal. This is because although due to the present day scenario most people suffer from anxiety, people can lead a proper life without anxiety causing any major worry to their lives if it is dealt with properly.

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If you are still doubtful whether anxiety therapy is needed, take a look at the problems caused by anxiety:

Ø As a victim of the most generalized type of anxiety, you may have recurring thoughts about losing everything that you posses. The symptoms are quite dangerous because people who suffer from similar experiences are bound to face problems in concentrating on their daily task.

Ø Many people develop various types of phobias that can be really dangerous and that may lead to various other mental illnesses.

The problems mentioned above are just a couple from a never ending list; the impact may vary from person to person. Anxiety therapy is extremely important because if anxiety is not dealt with properly it may cause recurring panic attack, psychological disorder, depression etc.

Here is a brief insight on ways to fight anxiety.

Behavioral Therapy:

This therapy employs techniques that work in reduction or stopping of undesired behavior. A common technique used makes use of relaxation and deep breathing that stops breathing problems that anxiety may cause.

Cognitive Therapy:

Cognitive bevavioural therapy is an excellent Anxiety therapy because it is a different but realistic approach to those who understand how anxiety causes problems since it enables them to take steps to stop the reasons that create anxiety.