Natasha Devon

I really liked this read and found it a useful look into how mental illness affects people and how it affected her and how she wants people to regard their mental health as important. She has had her own issues and some of the treatment worked. The alphabetical chapter headings is a bit of a gimmick but it's as good a way to organise the information as any other.
The last paragraph of the book reads "If you've ever asked yourself the question ' is it just me who is going mad?' or looked around and thought 'there must be a better way', I wrote this book for you." and that does encapsulate the book quite well. There are a few other paragraphs that really struck me while reading the book.
p. 2 under a list of feelings/experiences that require too many words to convey.
* The slight discomfort of having an entire Sunday stretched out ahead with no fixed plans, knowing that you ought to make the most of it before work on Monday and experiencing a niggling guilt at all the productive ways you could spend the time in the face of an overwhelming desire to sit on your arse and devour an entire series on Netflix whilst eating items of little or no nutritional value."
and
* "The dual sensation of being desperate to know what happens next yet not wanting to finish a book because you're enjoying it too much."
Oh yeah, I feel seen by those concepts. This book felt like an older relative who sits you down to impart information to you so that you can have a better life and less road-bumps. She's practical enough that she doesn't believe that they will be removed, just fewer of them and possibly signposts so you might notice them.and take steps to ensure that they don't destroy your life.
There were another few nuggets that really spoke to me.
p.237 (technically about being young but it's pretty much for all ages) "Remember that no one knows what they're doing. Everyone is walking around thinking 'Argh! I don't have a clue! Why am I in charge of this thing? How am I allowed to have responsibilities?' The process of becoming an adult is simply the means by which we become more adept at hiding this. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you're the only one who hasn't figured everything out. No one has."
p 238 one of the most clever comments is "Never be sworn to secrecy by a friend who is telling your about their mental illness. It is not your burden to carry, it is not your problem to fix, and if they are a danger to themselves (for example if they are suicidal) it is not a betrayal to tell someone.
These are things that just seem to work well in the book and make it one that I would recommend almost everyone should read. I have no idea what prompted me to borrow it but they were right, it's a book to read.… (más)

I received A Beginner's Guide to Being Mental from Pan Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.

I suspect many people like myself, who have had to confront mental health issues at some stage in our lives, will recognise the way in which tackling our problems can force us to develop a broader understanding of how human thoughts, feelings, physical needs and interpersonal relationships function, and what it means when things go wrong. A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental takes that basic package of insight, adds a ton of expertise from author Natasha Devon’s career as a mental health educator, mixes in additional knowledge from mental health professionals and people with lived experience, and packages it into a concise, accessible read. The result, while not a traditional self-help tool (or, obviously, a substitute for medical support), is an invaluable collection of wisdom and demystification on a subject where straightforward information can still be hard to come by.
As one should expect from the title, A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental organises its material in an A to Z format, with one topic per letter. This is a cute tactic, although it leads to a couple of contrived chapter names, including the very unfortunate choice to name the self-harm chapter “Just Attention Seeking” and cross reference it using this stereotyped phrase in several other chapters. While the J chapter itself addresses the misconceptions of this phrase straight away, I still found it uncomfortable to have it peppered throughout the book, especially when so much care seems to have been taken elsewhere to avoid unnecessarily harmful language and content.
Devon covers a lot of ground within her twenty-six chapters, addressing common illnesses and symptoms, the influence of external factors like youth and gender, and the kinds of treatment available (including both medical services like drugs and therapy as well as different forms of self-care). She also covers some UK specific ground about accessing mental health services, and is open about the inadequacies and gaps in the current NHS system, and her experiences as a government advisor on mental health. I apparently missed all coverage of her eleven months in the post while I was abroad, but this might not be news to everyone – and it probably won’t be news to most of my readers that the Conservative government were less than excellent about using Devon’s considerable expertise to genuinely improve the system.
One side effect of the A to Z format is that it frontloads Devon’s personal experiences with mental illness (anxiety and eating disorders), strengthening the feeling that this book is from someone who “gets it” from multiple angles. The chatty, informal style also helps, and makes this a readable and at times very funny book. At the same time, A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental feels carefully written (“J” chapter name aside) and it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into the content. Personal experiences are recounted where it may overcome taboo or help a reader to feel less alone, but the text avoids anecdotes that could be voyeuristic or, in the case of self-harm behaviours and eating disorders, contribute to “competitiveness” among those who struggle with these conditions. There is one section in an early chapter with some unpleasant medical details, and potentially triggering content about Devon’s experiences with bulimia, which is given a clear content warning; otherwise, this book should be accessible to anyone not in a state of immediate crisis.
To further sweeten the deal, A Beginner’s Guide to Being Mental is illustrated by Rubyetc, who I believe is literally the most relateable artist ever (certainly the most relateable artist on my Twitter feed in 2018). I am strongly considering buying a physical copy of this book when it is released on the strength of the illustrations alone – and, of course, because I think this is a very important and timely book that I would like to be able to pass on to other people in my life.… (más)