Murphy Enda - Five Steps to Happiness: Learning to Explore and Understand Your Emotional Mind

I am delighted to have been asked to write a foreword for this wonderful book. I met Enda back in 2004 and it was from the beginning a meeting of minds. We both share a passion for simplifying and normalising the whole area of mental health. Enda is not only an excellent CBT therapist in his own right but has spent the past seven years in particular teaching family doctors through the ICGP and GP training schemes a completely new approach to the management of common mental health difficulties.

At the heart of Endas philosophy is a deep caring for those in mental distress and a kindness and empathy which comes through in every page of this excellent book. He is the creator of the Raggy Doll concept, which many of those who have read my own books will be familiar with. This simple but profound concept is but one of many wise and practical pieces of advice he has for those in trouble.

But this book is meant for each and every one of us. For all of us as human beings fall into the five unhealthy habits so wonderfully presented in it. Do we not all spend our lives, for example, rating ourselves or living in a world where our happiness depends on our perceptions of how others view us? Do we also not spend so much time trying to control life? In particular do we not spend so much of our lives abnormalising the normal? Such habits have a great capacity to make us feel unhappy and unfulfilled in life.

There will also be many who pick up this book who may have battled against panic attacks, general and social anxiety, depression and eating disorders and whose lives are often wasted by not receiving help in time (before these conditions become chronic). There are many books out there packed with information about these conditions but that do not really show us how to solve them. This is what is so special about this particular book for it focuses on the solution and not just the problem!

I have spent the last few years trying to persuade Enda to write this book, for I like many of my colleagues have learnt so much from him. His approach has always been hands-on and totally practical based more on emotional intelligence. I feel his wisdom and solution based approach to the emotional problems many of us face in our lives will assist us in dealing with such issues.

Enda and I both believe that we need to present mental health in a completely new manner with particular emphasis on lifestyle and reshaping many of the thinking and behavioural habits behind common mental health difficulties. There are many families throughout our country who are grieving over the deaths of loved ones to suicide. There is little doubt in my mind that the concepts in this book go a long way to addressing many of the reasons for the emotional distress that drive so many down this dark road and offers solutions as to how to deal with them.

My congratulations to Enda (and his lovely wife Mei who has been such an inspiration in his life) for the wonderful work he is doing and for producing this excellent book which has so much potential to change the lives of many.

Dr Harry Barry
(GP and author)