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Reviews tagging 'Self harm'
It's Not OK to Feel Blue (and Other Lies): Inspirational People Open Up About Their Mental Health by Scarlett Curtis
9 reviews
leahg22's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Abandonment, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Bullying, Eating disorder, Confinement, Drug use, Self harm, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic friendship
beckyyreadss's review against another edition
4.0
The only thing that kept it from being five stars is I did struggle to get into this book, I knew there was a lot of people involved in this which meant there was a lot of different writing styles etc. I thought it was more like Scarlett was interviewing everyone and then there was quotes from the people telling the stories, but Scarlett only has like 3 or 4 chapters in this and obviously she edited it or she was involved but I wanted more from her as the named author. She tells her story and gives foreword and final words, but I just wanted more. It's the same with Feminists don’t wear pink. I think I just forgot that she’s got a couple of chapters and edited it.
This book has motivated me to want to have the discussion more, to get my younger brother to read this, to show my nephew that it’s okay if he is struggling that I can be his shoulder or if he or my brother opens up to me about their mental health, I know how to support them. I want to make sure they get their mates to talk and opens up and to hopefully destroy the narrative of “boys don’t cry.”
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide, Self harm, and Death
Minor: Eating disorder
britgirlreading's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Suicide, Rape, Terminal illness, War, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, and Self harm
eviereadsallthetime's review
3.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Self harm
nickoliver's review against another edition
3.0
Now, before I delve into my feelings a bit more, I need to give a little disclaimer: I read the German edition of this book, which was abridged with only about 310 pages instead of the almost 600 pages of the English version - something I didn't realise until I went to mark the book as currently reading. So it's entirely possible that the original would've had some groundbreaking, amazing essays that I now missed out on. But judging by these 310-ish pages, I honestly doubt that.
What I did like about the book was that it was diverse. It didn't just talk about one kind of mental health issue or had authors who experienced their illnesses the same way, nor did the authors all focus on the same thing. Some essays chose to tell the story of the authors' lives with depression, anxiety, panic attacks, bipolar disorder etc. Others found it more important to make it clear that it was okay to have a wide variety of feelings - that anger was okay, that sadness was okay. There were even a few that focused on extrinsic factors that could have an impact on mental health, like homophobia, xenophobia, or even your own culture where talking about such topics wasn't the norm. I really appreciated that diversity, because I think especially teenagers - which at least my library considered to be the target audience - could profit from some of the essays.
And I admit that some essays - or at least some paragraphs of them - did get to me. They made me tear up a little, and for a short, glorious moment, I felt less alone, because I saw my own thoughts and feelings reflected back at me.
However, the essays that truly read personal and meaningful were only few and far between. Unfortunately, the majority of them were very surface-level, so the ones that delved deep kind of drowned in them. It could be argued that the authors attempted to keep it lighthearted, to not trigger the reader and instead make them see their own mental illness - or mental illness in general - as something that didn't have to take over your life and shouldn't be as stigmatised as it is.
But in my opinion, that didn't work that well. Instead, some essays just seemed like their authors put absolutely no thought into them and the message they wanted to convey. For example, Benjamin Maack just mentioned that he didn't meet the deadline and that made him a piece of shit and sorry about that. Some were extremely short - for example, Naomi Campbell's was literally half a page long -, and many superficial sayings could be found within them that were probably already obvious to most mentally ill people. Sometimes, I felt like I'd accidentally picked up some leaflet at a mental health specialist's office. There was a also a lot of repetition from one essay to the next, which obviously tempered my excitement, too.
I do have to say I really liked Scarlett Curtis's essays. She was the editor of the book, and you could see that the book meant a lot to her. And I think the idea behind a book like this is admirable! But overall, this wasn't as impactful as I'd hoped it would be.
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Homophobia
Moderate: Self harm
rbacon's review against another edition
Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
booksandcat's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Dementia, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia
marienuit's review against another edition
4.0
Minor: Self harm
nbrockbank's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Self harm, Eating disorder, and Medical content