David Burns Feeling Good: Depression :: essays research papers

David Burns Feeling Good Depression     In the hold of account Feeling Good , David Burns, MD, the reservoir, outlinescertain cognitive techniques an individual suffering from clinical depression could usein combating the inconvenience. He begins the book by briefly describing the applicability and the prevalence of depression. The author captures the audiencesattention in the first paragraph " In fact depression is so widespread it isconsidered the common cold of psychiatric disturbances" (Burns, 1992) p. 9.Burns(1992), continues to suggest that the difference between the common coldand depression lies in the fact that depression is lethal. Irwing and BarbaraSerason (1996) suggest that at least 90 percentageage of all suicide victims sufferfrom a diagnosable psychiatric disorder at the time of their death. Irwing andBarbara Serason (1996) also state that one of the risk fixingss in committingsuicide is the presence of snappishness disorder. Sil verman (1993) states that suicideamong young great deal 15 to 19 years of age has increased by 30 percent from theyears 1980 to 1990.     In my opinion David Burns brings up a logical issue in addressing thepertinence of depression as it pertains to peoples tendencies of committing asuicide other academics have agreed with the same findings. However theseacademics have not specifically stated that depression is the only risk factorof committing a suicide. They did not even suggest that depression is theheighest weighted risk factor in committing a suicide. The impression thereader gets after reading the foregoing paragraph of the Feeling Good book isthat severe depression forget inevitably result in suicide unless it is cured.Implying that if a person has a depressive disorder, it will lead to a suicidecan be wicked and counterproductive for a person who already feels hopelessthis may reaffirm their belief of hopelessness and the inevitability of thedisorder .     Once the first paragraph is passed the author indicates that there ishope in curing depression, giving the reader an encouragement to continue withthe book.     According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of MentalDisorders(DSM-IV), temper disorders atomic number 18 classified into two broad categories,bipolar and unipolar depressive disorders. The book Feeling Good only talksabout the unipolar depressive disorders, thus, I will only concentrate on thatone category. Unipolar mood disorders are classified under axis I of the DSM-IV.Unipolar depressive disorders are further classified into two categoriesdysthymic, and major depressive disorder. Even though some(prenominal) of the disorders aremood disorders they have some fundamental differences and similarities.According to DSM-IV people experiencing major depression must have depressedmoods and/or corrupted interest for at least two weeks, for most of the day,