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After the horrific trauma of the accidental death of her teenage son, author Harris gradually began to slip into mental illness, overwhelmed by pent-up emotions, nightmares, hallucinations, and depression. Over a period of years, she spent time and money on therapies to cope with her negative feelings, triggered by the loss of her son but also arising from childhood abuse including low self esteem brought on by having an alcoholic father and a mother who punished her physically and told her that she was “conceited” to love herself. The turning point came when Harris began to realize she was in control of her mind, leading to the repetition of affirmations of self-praise such as “I treat myself sweet, kind and loving.” These affirmations, she points out, are free, can be self-composed, and have the same power to drive out negative thoughts that medicines have to drive out physical disease.
Harris, who now works to help those with mental illness recover from trauma and addiction, speaks convincingly from her own experience in this practical guidebook. In a useful appendix, she provides several pages of positive affirmations that anyone might use, along with twelve steps to “Healing Mental Invasion” and four steps “To Manifest Change.” Her stance reflects a Christian viewpoint; she quotes from the Bible, particularly emphasizing the ways that Jesus performed healings and the statements he made about the power of the Spirit. Harris vividly characterizes mental illness as a “kind of invasion” but asserts that one’s sanity is always present despite the invasion, and taking charge of one’s thoughts has the power to restore it. Her writing is straightforward and logical and projects a sense to the reader that anyone can do what she did: reject and dispel negative ideations and regain a state of genuine sanity.