Overcoming Anxiety and Depression: Practical Tools to Help You Deal with Negative Emotions

by Bob Phillips

Anxiety and depression are the two most common emotions that plague people, causing emotional distress and feelings of inferiority, loneliness, and despair. Help is available for these people in pain—help from God, from His Word, and from the experience of gifted men and women who seek to lead people to wholeness.

Readers will readily identify with licensed family counselor Bob Phillips as he provides descriptions of the potentially debilitating effects of these difficult emotions. He reveals the root causes of anxiety and depression, which are fear and anger, and he helps readers acknowledge and deal with these driving forces in an effective, godly way. He includes a gentle and helpful presentation of spiritual issues and the gospel that will benefit believers and nonbelievers alike.

This hands-on, user-friendly approach is written with the lay person in mind and includes plenty of practical and effective self-help exercises that readers can use to find freedom. Christian counselors will recognize that Bob's system is built on a solid foundation of scriptural principles and up-to-date technical research on mental health.

Genres: Psychology, Christian Living

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 2007

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hope someone looks at this before they read this book. I am going to quote some lines out of the book. "Once I do away with the myth of mental health", "If people attend counseling or check into rehab believing that their problem is a disease or an illness" And of course religion, love this "You will be judged on whether or not you are doing what Christ wants you to do"
So if see this before you read it, just know what you are in for.

[Micki Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me a while to finish. I liked a lot of the advise that the author shares in this book, but I do not believe or agree with everything that he shares. I believe that Anxiety and Depression can be a temporary thing for some people while they are going thru hard times, but I also believe that there are those that struggle with it on a daily basis. I am a Christian and believe that God heals, he walks with us thru many struggles in life, is always there for us and will carry us thru anything life throws our way. I found a lot of take away messages from this author thru his teaching from the Bible. The author’s opinion on the use of medication seems a little narrow and a little off putting to those that need medication for anxiety and depression. I believe that medication can be helpful for a short time or a lifetime.

Years ago I as diagnosed with situational depression while going thru infertility and medication was very helpful to ease some of the emotions and anxiety surrounding having difficulty getting pregnant. After we adopted our first & second child I no longer needed the medication and I was able to stay off of it for many years. Then our second child was diagnosed with autism & that threw me back into situational depression again. I went back on medication and that helped me get thru that time in our lives. Years later we decided to go to a different fertility doctor and got pregnant after 10 years of trying and I had to get off of the medication and I was able to stay off of it for years. But as life events kept happening, I found myself needing medication again and have been on it for several years.

I would recommend this book to anyone that suffers with anxiety and depression as long as they can realize that this book is only one of many opinions about this subject and they can just read it for information and stay true to their own beliefs on the matter. There are a lot of great take away messages that I have learned from, but do not agree with everything written in this book!

[Carelly Vazquez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me costó mucho leerlo. Tiene muchas historias, datos curiosos para ejemplificar lo que desea comunicar.

Pero no es mi tipo de libro. Le doy 2.5/5 estrellas.
El mensaje es bueno y tiene tips muy buenos para las perdonas que sufrimos de ansiedad, pero es demasiado católico para mi gusto y no logré identificarme.

[Louisa Carlson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why write a book about mental health if you don’t believe it’s real anyways? And weirdly anti doctor.

[Niel · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the offset, the author is not a qualified psychologist nor has any formal training. What was really lacking for me was the fact that he, on the offset, disqualifies the use of medication, which I think is a dangerous statement to make. While I don't believe that depression and anxiety are purely as a result of chemical imbalances, it is dangerous to indicate that meds are to be avoided.

All I'm saying is, take it from whence it comes. If you make peace with the facts above this book does have some useful angles and anecdotes to overcoming this challenge in life.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never thrown a book in the trash. Until now.

I wanted to learn some positive techniques for managing depression for my son who was resistant to medication. I, myself, have suffered from depression for 15+ years and know the repercussions of not treating it with medication and therapy.

This book nearly goes so far as to say-just be happy and think positively. That’s not the solution. That just hurts those who have tried that to no avail.

[Erksh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rarely do I not finish books. Rarely.

But this book took the cake. I could rant, but it's not worth the time. Want a brief summary?

"This foolishness needs to stop. How long should we go on describing socially unacceptable behaviors [bulimia, anorexia, alcoholism, agoraphobia, ADHD, NPD, OCD, PTSD] as illnesses?"


Let me say this: the first 2-3 chapters have some merit in that they are helpful for identifying some mental illnesses, mainly anxiety and depression. But they are in no way unique and seeking the same from a different source would be a much better use of your time.

But after that is equal parts Phillips ranting to a damn near temper tantrum about the entirety of the field of psychology, and offering shallow, surface-level bullshit, mixed in with Bible verses. I was shocked to find that Phillips is actually a counselor, because it doesn't show at all. I feel so, so bad for anyone who sees him seeking actual treatment.

Please don't read this book. Mental illness is misunderstood enough, we don't need people like Phillips doing the equivalent to psychology of what flat earthers are to science.

[Rene Pennington · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion the last 3 chapters were the best. There was a lot of very helpful stuff in the other chapters that tried to reach as many people as possible, but for our small group I wish it had been a little less broad.

[Carol · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing -- negative view on medication. Not what I was looking for.

[Glenda · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst book I've ever read. The premise: drugs are bad, depression is your own choice, believe in God. I regret I didn't realize I was picking up a religion diatribe. It was a little offensive.

[Jill Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful & practical.....highly recommend.