Author: Keith Maginn
Series: none
Published Date: January 1, 2011
Publisher: Author
ISBN: 9781481276184
Buy It Link: Amazon
Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis: Turning This Thing Around is an inspiring memoir of overcoming personal struggles. This brutally honest, deeply personal account of redemption takes readers on a moving spiritual journey.
Confronted with a myriad of obstacles–a debilitating arthritic disease, narcolepsy, anxiety and depression–the author was outwardly happy, but inwardly miserable. Pushed to the lowest point of his life, Maginn shares how he gradually turned things around and used his experiences to grow as a person.
Supplemented by heartfelt poetry by the author and with quotes from Gandhi to Dr. Wayne Dyer to Eckhart Tolle, Turning This Thing Around has universal themes that speak to nearly everyone, as we all must face challenges as part of being human. It is a self-help memoir of sorts: the author discusses not only what he overcame, but also how he did so–and how others can, too.
Unlike many popular memoirs on the market, this is a story that more people can relate to. Maginn was not raised in an eccentric family (Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle, memoirs by Augusten Burroughs), nor did he travel to Italy, India and Indonesia, as Elizabeth Gilbert did in Eat, Pray, Love. Rather, Turning This Thing Around is a story of a normal young man’s resiliency when battling extraordinary circumstances.
Review: I received a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.
From the beginning, the author pulls you into the struggles that he faces on a daily basis. Mental illness, while slowly being accepted, still carries a large stigma, and a large burden of people not understanding it. If you don't suffer from depression or anxiety, or any of the plethora of different emotional illnesses out there, you can't really understand it. It doesn't always just have a psychological reason, sometimes, like the author, if you're put into a great deal of physical pain, that can send you into a spiral of emotional debilitation.
As a person that has gone through clinical depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and generalized anxiety, I could completely relate to his struggles. It was inspiring to me to see that someone could pull themselves through, with professional help, instead of the daily battles that sometimes ensue without professional help.
I do have to warn future readers however, this book can be a trigger, if your issues are not under control. I thought I had a pretty good leash around my PTSD and anxiety, but this book triggered me and sent me into an anxiety spiral. It ended up for the best because now I do have a better hold of my anxiety, with help.
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