Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than DBT, October 12, 2007
I am a person with bi-polar, severe depression. I am currently participating in a Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT) program, which is very highly touted in MI therapy. Ms. Maschio's book "When Your Mind Is Clear, the Sun Shines All the Time", to me, is more easily understood and clear than DBT. And because Jill is an MI consumer, I can easily relate to her words. This book helps me build confidence and hope. Thank You Jill Macshio.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Compelling and Insightful Read, January 19, 2007
Jill Maschio's book, When Your Mind is Clear, the Sun Shines All the Time: A Guidebook for Overcoming Depression takes readers on a personal journey into the murky waters of depression. Written by a survivor afflicted with deep depression for many years, the author shares a candid story about her personal battle with depression. She shows how she came to understand it, face it, and overcome it.
Maschio explains that the key to overcoming depression is "critical thinking." She demonstrates that critical thinking involves taking the time to challenge your feelings and thoughts instead of reacting to them. The author delivers key tools to becoming a successful critical thinker allowing one to develop positive decision-making abilities. By analyzing your thought processes during difficult times and recognizing flawed thinking that can lead to misinterpreting events, she shares how you can head off the path to depression. Readers learn to challenge many influences, internal and external, and develop the ability to question their validity by looking at them from other points of view before jumping to conclusions.
Rationalizing plays a key role in critical thinking. Maschio provides exercises gathered from various authors with experience on a variety subjects in the book including her own self-help exercises. Teaching readers how to assess a situation, the author offers ways to look at things differently thereby engaging in positive decision-making. Readers learn how to recognize when decision-making is the result of an emotional response, which is a fundamental tool to becoming a critical thinker. Various techniques that include relaxation, active listening, the benefits of forgiving others and ourselves, as well as using "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs," help to gain insight into overcoming depression.
With constant reflections of her own inner struggle throughout the book, Maschio shows readers how to apply critical thinking to constant negative thoughts. She delivers an understanding of self-esteem, a logical look where self-esteem originates, the effects of low self-esteem, and how to master the art of raising it by employing critical thinking.
Jill Maschio's guide to overcoming depression stands out from many self-help books because it is told from the perspective of a survivor. It delivers hope to those believing life is hopeless. With over 57 million people in the US suffering from depression, the author demonstrates that we all have it in us to "walk through fear" to break free from the constant cycle of negative thoughts and achieve self-discovery.
Tracy Roberts, Write Field Services
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