Hello, readers and writers. I can’t really say “good day” or anything similar today. For those of my readers who live in California, you’ve probably heard about the Carr fire by now. Unfortunately, that fire has reached the largest city near me and some family members have already had to evacuate, so my stress levels are pretty high right now. The good thing is that my parents and I are not in any danger right now and the family members who have evacuated have found somewhere to stay. That’s why I feel safe, despite the fire, to share another book review with you. Today, the review is for Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Michael Garron.
You might remember Michael Garron as the author of another book I have reviewed on this blog before, Emotional Intelligence. While Emotional Intelligence discusses how you can read your emotions and those of people around you and then use that information to interact with others successfully, Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is about learning to overcome those emotions which are self-destructive: depression, anxiety, anger, etc. In this book, Garron provides the reader with everything they need to initiate cognitive behavioral therapy, from a detailed description of the practice to positivity exercises to approaches individualized for specific emotions/conditions like those listed above. It’s more than just a how-to book; it explains in-depth why you should do something, how it can help you, and any possible downsides.
Image retrieved from Amazon
As with Emotional Intelligence, this thoroughness drags down Garron’s writing at some points in Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. In particular, I feel that it takes a long time to get to the heart of the matter—using cognitive behavioral therapy to help manage emotional issues/conditions—because a lot of time is spent in the beginning explaining what cognitive behavioral therapy is. Readers need this information in order to understand what this process is and how it works, but I still got bored at points trying to get through what felt like repetitive information.
Once the book really gets started, though, it’s a quick and easy read while still providing the necessary information. I think that the chapters on anxiety and depression will prove especially helpful for writers. Working professionals and artists overall, including writers, notoriously have issues struggling with depression and anxiety. Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps to identify the reason(s) for these problems and gives step-by-step instructions on how to restructure this thinking which are still flexible enough to personalize for the individual’s situation. Better yet, Garron addresses different kinds of anxiety when so many people forget that it is not a one-size-fits-all sort of mental illness.
As someone who has suffered from depression, anxiety, and anger issues, Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy proved to be a particularly interesting book for me. My bouts of depression can be crippling and my anxiety prevents me from fully functioning on a daily basis; my anger issues, while embarrassing, are easier for me to handle and don’t interfere quite as much with my life. Before this book, I had never really heard of cognitive psychology or cognitive behavioral therapy. However, after reading about it in Garron’s work, I think that cognitive behavioral therapy might able to supplement the control I’ve gained through anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication.
That brings me to a point which almost immediately annoyed me in this book: it cast these sorts of medication in an incredibly negative light. The points that Garron makes about medication are valid; after all, it does mess with the chemistry of the brain, which is why they can help people with these conditions. Nevertheless, Garron highlights more of what’s wrong with these medicines than what is right with them. In the rest of the book, he does so well to emphasize that results may vary and that everyone needs to personalize the cognitive behavioral therapy to work best for them, but I feel that that attitude is absent when he discusses anti-depressants and similar medication. In fact, his bias against them, while not violent or shame-inducing, seems pretty clear when I read this book. I just wish that he had provided a more balanced view of medications as he does with everything else.
Overall, Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Michael Garron is a very helpful guide for those looking into therapeutic ways to address their emotional and mental health problems. Garron tries and covers all of the major mental illnesses and emotional control issues as well as a variety of ways to deal with them using cognitive behavioral therapy. Be cautioned, though: Garron emphasizes, time and time again, that this approach requires a lot of effort on your part and will require investigating emotions and memories that you don’t necessarily want to relive. You also cannot do this alone. You must include a fair third party—a friend, family member, therapist, etc.—to get a full view of your actions and any connections you may not have been able to make on your own. This process is not a passive approach to your problems, and this book is not a passive read; in order to get the full benefits from it, you must give it an honest effort. Also, don’t assume that it will work for you or work overnight; it will take time and, in the end, it might not be for you and/or you will need additional professional help.
You can buy Mastering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Michael Garron on Amazon.
Do you know of any books I should read? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com and let me know!
Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011