**spoiler alert** My 3 rating doesn't mean I don't highly recommend this book. I do; take what is useful for you and leave the rest. The problem is so**spoiler alert** My 3 rating doesn't mean I don't highly recommend this book. I do; take what is useful for you and leave the rest. The problem is some parts of the book are a 5+, amazing, but others made me cringe. There are wonderful steps and actions to take in order to work on improving your mood. I have just started doing the exercises, but as a patient who has been depressed for years despite drug and talk therapy, I can tell they are helping. That makes the book a 5 star for sure. However the misleading title "drug free" therapy is weird because he acknowledges that drugs can be useful for people (thank goodness). There was a strange antidote about a woman meticulously trying to win an abusive husband back with charts of how long they talked on the phone, cigars, and never being critical. How on earth is any of that a good idea? If he's abusive, HE needs to change. That part was a 1. Finally I'm not sure if I'm just not used to self help books, but the tone made me feel dumb. However, I emphasize the book is absolutely worth reading for the 5 star parts....more
I'm so grateful to have a read a book that I can relate to on such a deep, emotional level.
~~~~all quotes~~~~~
"I loved my books; all my friends lived I'm so grateful to have a read a book that I can relate to on such a deep, emotional level.
~~~~all quotes~~~~~
"I loved my books; all my friends lived within their pages. My friends often lived inside my books, and the television set."
"I felt like an earthling walking in the midst of a sea of Martians. Today, I feel like I am from another planet."
"I didn't understand the odd stares, or know to feel left out when children didn't play with me. I was simply happy playing in my own world without anyone intruding or trying to change the way the game was played."
"Don't fret over the lonely child with only one friend; I was not lonely."
"Efforts to fix me, or demand I conform to the normal world around me only resulted in my retreat. I retreated into my own world--further into the depths of my foggy existence."
"I didn't receive the manual. You know, the manual where these social rules were written--but it appeared that everyone else around me had."
"Inside the gaping divide between what others perceive and what my brain processed was a dangerous place. This danger was greatest at a time when I was most vulnerable, at a time when I was developing my sense of self."
"Being mind-blind makes you extremely susceptible to deception. ...There can be many consequences of missing social cues, but none may be more devastating, dangerous, and harmful than not seeing the signs with your own relationships."
"I was never more myself than when I was six years old... She was carefree--free to be herself."
"If I could not make friends, I could create them upon the blank pages of my computer screen, on my legal pads, in the stories I had bottled inside."
"Due to the inability to express our emotions or communicate feelings of disturbance, anxiety or distress verbally, depression is often missed until it is so severe that it hinders our ability to function."
"I suppose I may be just too tired to pretend to be normal; too tired to consciously stop each instance of stimming, or every impending meltdown."
"In my virtual world, I have a voice. I can "talk" without worrying about how I sound, if I spoke out of turn, or unwittingly offended someone. I can put my words to the page in a logical order, say what I mean, and mean what I say. In my fake world I am real, I am alive, and I have something worthwhile to say. In the real world, I am fake, voiceless; a mannequin posing, pretending to fit in."...more
*edit* I changed my rating to a two because I felt bad...maybe there is something I am missing.
*spoilers* The character development is so bad everyone*edit* I changed my rating to a two because I felt bad...maybe there is something I am missing.
*spoilers* The character development is so bad everyone seems vacant and two faced. They seem like backup singers for Thomas, who is also badly developed. He randomly HATES Theresa for doing something she was forced to do to save his life, but feels no animosity towards Brenda, who lied to him and told him fake tales about how she was so scared of dying from a disease she didn't have because she was working with the organization he hates. What the fuck? We never find out anything of value about the variables or why WICKED scientifically needed to keep people in a death maze. The world is flat and undeveloped, and the plot was weird and rambling. I could keep going. Oh my God....more
It was interesting to read this book as somebody with autism, because much of his perceptions and symptoms did not resemble mine. He did remind me of It was interesting to read this book as somebody with autism, because much of his perceptions and symptoms did not resemble mine. He did remind me of people with Aspergers who I know and care about. I have to admit I was bored by all the technology and machinery descriptions, but those are his interests, and thus unsurprisingly in the book.
My experiences with autism are much more like this: which I think shows how far we need to go in researching and understanding the spectrum....more
I really wandered between rating this a four or a five. I have to say I'm biased because I love GRRM and ASOIAF so much. I really do think it could haI really wandered between rating this a four or a five. I have to say I'm biased because I love GRRM and ASOIAF so much. I really do think it could have been better, which means I shouldn't give it a five, but...but...
There was so much wandering around that I didn't think needed to be described in such detail? They went this way and not that much happened. They slowly, slowly went that way. Etc. But, um, a lot of characters I like were in it and also Greyjoys. GREYJOYS.
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