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Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'
The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy and The Glory of Growing Up by Evanna Lynch
49 reviews
holliejoy's review
4.25
Graphic: Eating disorder
Moderate: Medical trauma, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Bullying, Medical content, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Mental illness, and Self harm
vangoph's review
5.0
love that the trigger warnings are in the beginning of the book - do NOT take those warnings lightly.
Graphic: Mental illness, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, and Body shaming
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Medical content
enygirl's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Eating disorder
lotta_8's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Chronic illness, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
silver_lining_in_a_book's review against another edition
5.0
'It will get easier’ is probably the most offensive thing you can say to someone in the grip of pain. You are borrowing from a future that isn’t promised, a future that depends entirely on their endurance of the pain. You are taking for granted a well of strength within them that they may not possess, fast-forwarding through the ugly bits that you don’t want to watch but they must live through, nonetheless. ‘It will get easier’ is not a helpful thing to say to someone for whom only the present moment can exist, so vivid, so intense that it’s not possible to imagine a moment beyond it. The future doesn’t matter to someone enduring an unimaginable pain, so let’s not entertain that childish fantasy. All that matters is the pain that is consuming you in this moment, that you grit your teeth and try to survive it. You invalidate the pain and the damage it inflicts when you hasten to skip past it to a brighter tomorrow. Sometimes things are just unremittingly shit and the only respectful thing to do is to stand next to the person going through it and scream along with them.
Words cannot express how seen Evanna managed to make me feel through the retelling of her own hardships, but I know that had I read this book even a year earlier, it would not have been beneficial for my mental health at the time. Although, Evanna takes great care to be sensitive in regards to the topics she discusses, this is to its core an honest and raw depiction of mental health disorders and the process of growing up. Evanna can at times be painfully cruel to herself and she appears to feel little shame in portraying the way she acted during the toughest times in her life, which - while making this book very valuable and unique - at times makes this book very difficult to read.
Overall, I love the courage the author has shown in writing this book and, at least for me, this is a very very valuable memoir.
Graphic: Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Medical trauma, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Medical content, Body shaming, and Forced institutionalization
bethany1327's review
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness and Eating disorder
lisab11's review against another edition
5.0
I highly recommend this but would encourage you to make sure you’re in a stable place and to take breaks where required.
Graphic: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Mental illness
Moderate: Self harm
lotta_8's review
4.0
Graphic: Fatphobia, Mental illness, Body shaming, and Eating disorder
amelianotthepilot's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization
rosaryoleander's review against another edition
5.0
Evanna Lynch explores the absolute darknesses of the human soul, of the malignant self hatred of feeling worthless, and she does it without sympathy and pity for herself, but with a shrewd, cold, cruel analysis of her younger self. There are no frills to this story. It is dark and disturbing and heartbreaking to hear how much one so seemingly lovely hated herself.
But that is the brilliance, because that us what evokes the memory of those places in oneself.
This book is not an easy read. But it has heart, and hope and understanding of the self, and in the end there is grace. It may not be wonderful, but it is essential.
Graphic: Grief, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Medical content, Body shaming, Body horror, Eating disorder, Self harm, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse