I really enjoyed reading this book. I've suffered from Anxiety and Depression for a very long time and always appreciate reading something that will bring me back to a healthier headspace. This work really resonated with me, the author had a great writing style and it didn't feel like a chore to read it (as can often happen with books designed to be helpful).

Okay now this was something! Definitely will be using a couple of these in my daily life. Very entertaining to read and intriguing.

This was well written. I’ve been guilty of not being kind to myself. I’ve struggled with self-esteem issues for many years. This book provided me with some useful tools. Will recommend.

At one point or another we're all guilty of negative self talk. Things like "I'm so dumb" or "I always make the worst decisions" are common to most people. Krimer works with the reader to focus on redirecting those thoughts and changing them into more helpful affirmations. It's an easy read and one that is definitely worth it!

This is a self-consciously "sassy" self-help book that aims to help the reader reduce intrusive negative thoughts and negative core beliefs. In this case, "sassy" means lots of cursing and examples of negative beliefs from her own life. In that respect, it's as much memoir as pop-psychology, I'm not sure if this is a new trend, whereas in the past, psych authors tended to primarily use case studies drawn from their own clients. It's kind of odd; maybe it's a result of a post-blog world.

Also, I always always get annoyed by the use of the collective "we," and this book is no exception.

OTOH, the exercises and strategies for undoing negative beliefs are sound and synthesize various handouts and readings I've seen from various CBT guides.. Probably best for readers in their teens and twenties.

Fun book for those looking to ditch their negative self talk and find positive new ways to reframe those thoughts. Powerful questions are asked to help with this. May not be a lot of new information, but unique in the way its given. Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me to read and review.

The title of the book definitely grabbed my attention. It was easy to read and understand but I felt it was just another self-help book. Despite that, if you deal with negative self talk give it a chance.

Thanks to New Harbinger Publications and NetGalley for this ARC for my honest review.

As a social work student and a person who regularly talks shit to myself (lol), I was excited to start this book and gain some unique tips from a mental health professional on how to eliminate my negative self talk.

I love a good nonfiction book about mental health, and I was glad to see Krimer reference other works that further credits what she writes about. My favorite part about her writing is her use of humor. She also included reading suggestions when discussing specific topics, which I really appreciated. I also loved the chapter drawings!! This detail was so fun.

I think for the majority of the reading audience that is not a mental health professional, Krimer uses language and definitions that will help readers engage with this book and learn about effective strategies to combat negative self talk. Even as someone who has studied mental health for years, I still found the techniques suggested in this book to be helpful.

I think this book could really benefit people looking to speak more kindly to themselves! Thank you to NetGalley and New Harbinger Publications for an advanced copy of this ebook.

I really enjoyed this book. One could argue that this book doesn’t have anything new to add to the self-help book sphere and they wouldn’t be wrong, but that is the truth for a lot of books across all genres. The way the message is delivered is what makes this stand out from the crowd. I found this to be a pretty easy and pleasant read. The chapters and sections weren’t too long, nor the text too complicated. The graphic/visual elements were a nice addition to the book. The writing was engaging and, if you follow along the book and do the exercises, I think this will definitely add something good to your life.

Thank you for the EArc NetGalley. This book is full of really important reminders for every day. We are constantly our harshest critic and it’s so important we say nice things to ourselves or that we redirect the negatives to positives. I loved the message here and I recommend this to anyone!

We are firstly given a history lesson on the roots of self talk and have several different terms defined for us. This isn't going to be sugar coated or sweet talk, "Keep asking questions instead of bitching at the organ that keeps you alive."At times the author seems as though she wants the reader to be gentle and kind to their inner voice; however, the writing comes off harsh.
The book covers 40 potential things you may or may not have thought to yourself at one point in your life. I found a few of these depressing as well as triggering. She discusses a little bit about how you are sabotaging yourself by repeating these negative mantras. She also includes a bit of what you can do to stop that thought in its tracks.

Quotes
>>Our mind is not as reliable as we think, often giving us inaccurate information, which causes us to distort reality.
>>I'm afraid of heights-there's no point going to a theme park.


First Page Sample
Evolution created a brain that prioritizes survival over introspection. The oldest parts of our brains were formed for self-protection, and they didn't evolve to accurately respond to the complex nature of emotional or ego threat. If our ancestors weren't sure if the rustling in the woods was a danger to their tribe, they didn't spend much time self-analyzing. The mind's fight-or-flight reflex protected them by initiating an optimal response to the potential threat.

Yikes!
Would not recommend this for people like myself that quickly latch onto phrases and begin to adopt them as their own. It could make a situation worse.
My page 14, 18, had some weird font issues with a few of the letters.
The brain drawing on page 15 was really strange. Did not like the drawing on 24, 42, 128, 136, 139, 153, 157
>>Minds can be bothers, yes. (weird sentence structure)
>>When our mind-made self thinks all the maddening thing (weirds sentence structure)
There is a lot of switching back and forth between thing YOU must do, WE must do, HUMANS must do and things the author has done in the past.


NetGalley Read
July 3, 2022

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4822167559

I was admittedly surprised by how much I liked this book. There’s a trend in publishing to add curse words in book title’s just for shock effect, but in this case I think it’s fitting. What better way to describe the toxic self-talk in many of our heads? I appreciated that the book’s content is rooted in both cognitive behavior therapy and mindfulness practice and I enjoyed the author’s self described “snarky yet hopeful” tone. I highly recommend this to anyone who struggles with harsh self-talk, so pretty much everyone!

Katie Krimer’s “Sh*t I Say to Myself” is a wonderful addition to the psychology, self-help category of books. Any person who struggles with the wild and negative monkey in their head who spits out constant negative thoughts about themselves and the world around them would highly benefit from this compassionate and wise read.

I can't say that I like the swear words in this book but understand that they are there to shock you into changing your ways. I must say that I did expect them (the title gives a big clue ). Besides that , there is much to like about this book and a fair bit of sensible advice.

Everyone should read this or books like it since we all suffer from negative self talk at points in our lives. This contains excellent advice and approaches, and it probably covers the major or common messages we give ourselves. Recommended.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this novel. I am rating this book based the stars due to lack of time to leave a full review. #NetGalley

Sh*t I Say to Myself by Katie Krimer aims to help readers change their negative self-talk. The author is a therapist, and also describes herself as “a recovered negative thinker and self-talker. I’m also a former insomniac, life-long worrier and overthinker, recurring panic attack survivor, skilled ruminator, and recuperating perfectionist.”

The book is broken down into chapters devoted to various common negative self-talk statements. It covers topics like thoughts being electrical signals rather than facts, cognitive distortions like all-or-nothing thinking, perfectionism, and feeling like you’re not where you should be in life. The author offers suggestions for changing the words you use in talking to yourself, like saying goodbye to shoulds and replacing “yes, but…” with “yes, and…” She points out that when we tell ourselves “I can’t”, it’s usually code for something else, like “It feels too hard to…” or “I’m scared to…”

Some bits I liked:
-“Life is difficult enough without us compounding any suffering with criticizing the way our mind is experiencing life.”
-We can try to be curious, “turning ‘ugh’ into ‘huh'”.
-“One of the functions of our thought loops is that they give us an illusory sense of control over a situation that otherwise feels upsetting, unfinished, or uncertain.” Our brains do this “to try to protect us from the intolerable discomfort of not knowing.”
-Regarding negative filtering: “In essence, we distort the reality of what we hear and process it through a tattered, moldy filtration system and convince ourselves that the gross gunk is the ultimate truth about others, life, and us.”

Self-help books involving swearing have been big in recent years. When done well, this can come across as being true to how people actually talk, and when not done so well, it can come across as gimmicky. For the most part, it was done well in this book, but there were a few times when it seemed a bit much.

Some of the slang used made me notice the generation gap between Gen-X me and the millennial author. I haven’t quite wrapped my head around the fact that “dope” is something millennials say now, as I can’t help but think of Vanilla Ice and the lines “Deadly, when I play a dope melody, Anything less than the best is a felony” in Ice Ice Baby. The book does seem to be aimed at a millennial audience; that’s the main clientele the author works with, so the examples she gave of issues her clients have dealt with were based on that population.

The book was easy to read, with short chapters. There were also some fun illustrations to mix things up. I liked how upfront the author was about her own negative self-talk. The author doesn’t explicitly state the therapeutic approach that the book is based on, but it incorporates mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). As you might expect from a swearing-heavy book, the tone is blunt, but in a supportive, encouraging way. That approach isn’t going to work for everyone, but if it’s something that appeals to you, I think you’ll quite like this book.



I received a reviewer copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

This is a fantastic and quick read to help anyone dealing with negativity towards themselves. It’s told in a very straightforward way that is sure to help you realize how you’re treating yourself!

I could have done without all the f bombs but I see why they were there as well. It was just a lot at times.

This was exactly the guide I didn’t know I needed. Negative self talk is something I believe a lot of people struggle with and it’s a really tough habit to break. The author puts these negative thoughts into common and easy to relate to phrases, many of which I recognized having said myself. Even the recognition that they are common phrases and that you can break the loop was empowering. The strategies in this book are simple to put into practice despite the overall language being difficult to stop doing. With these practices, I imagine it will become easier over time to break the cycle of negative self talk. This is definitely a book to read slowly and to return back to again and again.

This book was just okay. I didn’t feel like it had information I hadn’t heard before. The information presented was done in a way that was easy to read and understand. I did like the little drawings and charts in the text.

I was given an Advances Reader Copy by NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.