How To Make Yourself Happy Paperback – May 1, 1999

Ellis is in a select class of thinker. I always get something positive out of all of his books. There are a lot of feel good books out there and I have read many of them. You feel good when you read them, like church revival meetings, but there are no tools for lasting changes. Raw, raw, raw your great, think big, the sky's the limit and on and on. Leave the cash and good luck is what you get from that stuff. Snake oil at its best.Ellis provides tools for meaningfull and lasting change for the better. Any one can increase their level of happiness by reading this book and applying the simple examples. That's one of the many things I like about Ellis, complex problems have simple solutions.

this book can change your life by giving your new tools...the ABCDE method....changing your irrational beliefs and getting rid of absolutistic musts/oughts/whining/awfulizing.the most important lesson at the heart of the book is USA...UNCONDITIONAL SELF ACCEPTANCE...this is the Mantra for a reasonably healthy happy life.....i accept myself no matter what....even if she dosent love me, or i dont get this or that....i can have healthy preferences but no absolute demands. the universe is not created to answer my needs.This is the best Albert Ellis book...easy read and to the point and very relevant.The other book thats highly recommended is MOOD THERAPY by Dr David Burns.

Life-changing! Ellis gives concrete techniques to alter maladaptive thought patterns and cope with difficulties with much less distress. It has helped me more than any other self-help book. If I start to slip and feel anxious or depressed, I pull this book back out to review it and I feel empowered and my distress is alleviated.

This book is a lengthy popular presentation of how to apply famous Dr. Ellis's Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) to yourself, with numerous examples, case studies and repetitions.REBT is a philosophy more than psychology. REBT states that is not an adversity (A) that affects the human but the belief (B) of the individual about it, leading to negative consequences (C). These are the simple but most important ABCs of the therapy.Dr. Ellis encourages disputing the irrational beliefs, avoiding generalization and absolutism, and unconditionally accepting self and the others.Here is an excerpt from the book: "Exceptionally bad occurrences are only awful, horrible or terrible when you define them as such. Bad never really means awful but you may think it does. And you never have to think in that self-destructive way. In fact if you think clearly, you'll soon see that nothing - no, nothing - is awful. [.....] When you insist that an undesirable event is awful or terrible, you are implying - if you're honest with yourself - that it is as bad as it could be: completely or 100% bad. Bu actually nothing can be 100% bad, because it invariably could be worse. If you are tortured to death slowly, you could always be tortured to death slower. About the only thing that could really be totally bad would be the annihilation of the entire human race, all the living and non-living things that now exist, and the whole universe. Well, that hardly seems likely in the near future. Even if our entire universe were to be annihilated, that would be most unfortunate but not really awful for several reasons: (a) We all ultimately will die anyway, (b) Once we were destroyed, we wouldn't know that we were non-existent, (c) It is sad that many species - like tyrannosaurus Rex and the dinosaur - no longer exist, but is it really awful? (d) If you view possible or actual human (or animal) annihilation, as awful, how will that help you stay alive or be happy?"Although Dr. Ellis has published more than 40 other self-help volumes, you can consider reading another book which is more brief and concise. There is a cute book "Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy - A Therapist's Guide" which, although targeted to practitioners qualified to practice psychotherapy, expose the REBT framework in much less words, and seemed much more vivid and easy to understand.

Great book if you are interested in cognitive behavioral therapy. Our therapist uses this type of therapy on our son who has a mental illness. We were wanting to understand the process of CBT and how to apply it in everyday situations. This is a very helpful resource. We read it with our son and have been practicing the techniques in the book to help our son unravel delusional thought patterns that plague him in his illness.

Excellent book my therapist recommended. It gets straight to the point and no coddling to excuses which is exactly what I need to overcome issues. Very satisfied and it shipped quickly and is in perfect condition. Highly recommend to anyone dealing with anxiety and depression!

I have several of Ellis' books and all of them have been immensely useful for myself and for when I find myself advising others. So practical and written in a friendly accessible format. Highly recommended.