Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts Paperback – July 29, 2014

I cannot understate how direct and clear this book is. The concept of Emotional First Aid can sound kitschy and off-putting but this is genuinely one of the best guidebooks to overall psychological wellbeing I have found. I've read many books that go over CBT and DBT and all of that. This book has very clear steps listed at the end of each chapter that guide you through how to "heal" from the injuries of these various areas of psychological hurt.It also contains one of the most thorough guides to overcoming loneliness that I've ever seen. A lot of books when they touch on this essentially tell you "here's how to make friends: step one remember names!" and go on to tell you how to socialize in that sense, which, by in large is not what people are looking for. This directly goes through the steps of how to do the internal and external work needed to reconnect with those around you and develop relationships. I cannot sing enough praise for this book, I think everyone should have this book just for the understanding it gives of ourselves!

I recently suffered from a breakup with somebody I had been dating for almost a year. The timing was not great, as it occurred right when my previous job was ending and I was starting the job-searching process. I quickly realized I was spiraling into depressive tendencies (staying in bed most of the day, ruminating about things my partner did and what she might be doing now), and I decided to try to help myself out of it by buying this book.The major premise of the book is that we should treat our emotional wounds like our bodily wounds: allowing sufficient time to let them heal AND, most importantly, taking special precautions to make sure they don't get worse. If the former part of that statement is a bit of a truism, as some of the other reviewers have noted, I have found Winch's suggestions for the latter part to be on the whole very interesting and helpful.So far I have read the three chapters on Rejection, Loss, and Rumination. The tone of the Rejection chapter is markedly different from the others and, in my opinion, not effective – it sounds like he had a buzzfeed editor insert quips at the end of each paragraph, all of which fall flat. Fortunately, this trend does not continue into the other chapters, which are more serious in tone and I think more comforting (I don't really want somebody making sh@tty jokes about my sadness). Some of the suggestions he makes for rumination (use a third-person perspective instead of a first when remembering events) and for loss (to try to ask yourself why events happened instead of just how they happened) are both novel and research-based.So far, I think this book has achieved what it set out to. It won't be winning any awards, but it will help stock your "emotional medicine cabinet," if you don't have one already.

Good book, turn to the lord

Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating Failure, Rejection . .. arrived just as I went through one of the worst experiences covered in the book. It helped me to move from unimaginable pain to peace and its suggestions were very helpful in my efforts to resolve the situation. It's not completely fixed yet - this takes more time, but this book has made me much more comfortable as I move toward a final resolution.I highly recommend it. It's easy to read, has interesting examples and will hit you right where you live. EVERYBODY experiences the situations the author addresses and EVERYBODY can find help from him. It's more than a great start - it can help a person to gain a more comfortable perspective and feel better about himself/herself - the only thing left for me in my awful situation is the mop up.

This book has really helped me come to terms with a lot of the treatments and pains I've been through in my life. I've always had a difficult time using my emotions/feelings/wording/processings and whatnot to be around other people. I honestly thought at times I was a robot, but once I read this book I felt better, and not only do I feel better but now I understand myself and others more than I've ever had before. If you need a insightful read that's relatable and can be used in real-world situations; this is the book for you! (Opinion subjective of course!)