Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

13 reviews

lvrlvr's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Panic attacks/disorders

satsukiq's review against another edition

3.0

“And from that awareness we can find a way to keep hold of ourselves and still stay in love with this world. That’s the idea. It’s hard. But also, it is better than despair”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt

mcc004's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness

Moderate: Fatphobia

misty_nightmare's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Bullying, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Addiction, and Body shaming

mellowbread's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

I devoured this while standing up in the local Waterstones. I’m pretty sure everyone who passed by me was mildly irritated by how I was blocking the personal development section since I was leaning against the shelf. I’ve been feeling a mix of negative feelings, one of them anxiety, and this really confirmed and validated my habits of practicing digital and physical minimalism. I think there is a lot of humour interspersed throughout the mess of chapters that somehow have an easily understandable order. I think it encourages the reader to reflect on what content they are consuming, and how our mental health is affected by how messaging screams at us, telling us we’re not enough if we don’t have X. It felt really comforting knowing that I’m not the only one who struggles with this from time to time, and I will definitely re-read this when I need a slow-down life reminder. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

creativeworld's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

3.5

It is certainly a good book and the writing style is interesting but I did get a little bored of the lists as they lost their impact in the last few chapters.
It is full of useful information for those suffering with mental illness. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Medical content, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders

amyfmurphy's review

emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Sexual harassment and Eating disorder

helhas3letters's review

dark hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

2.5

In this book, Haig outlines why he thinks humans have become stressed out and anxious by default. He largely puts it down to overwhelm and overstimulation in the age of information, and a neglect for taking good care of ourselves. Throughout the book, he reflects on different aspects of modern life, using statistics and studies, personal anecdotes, and more poetic creative writing.

Haig is a really accessible writer and easy to read. My main gripe with Notes on a Nervous Planet is that although it points out some important issues and backs them up with evidence, it doesn't provide many solutions for them. I enjoyed the chapters that came after the outlining of certain problems, which provided a numbered list of 'things you can do to X'/'changes you can make to stop Y', but I would have liked those solutions to be explored a bit more.

I also think that although Haig overall made some really good points in this book, it was very broad and I wish it was more focused. He took on a massive topic and, although he did split it into sections, each of these sections could easily be a book in and of themselves.
I recommend this as a good overview or introduction to the topic. However, if you want more in-depth discussion on, for example, the effects that social media has on our brains, or what lack of sleep does to us and why it's so important, or why the news has us in a state of panic all the time, then I'd recommend picking up a more specific book. (E.g.  Outraged by Ashley 'Dotty' Charles, Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, Factfulness by Hans Rosling.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Mental illness, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Minor: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Body shaming

fionnlister's review

reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

mikaelaandherbooks's review

hopeful reflective slow-paced

3.0

I find Matt Haig's nonfiction work to always be really thought-provoking and reflective; however, I definitely prefer Reasons to Stay Alive over this one. I just didn't feel like this one was as impactful as RTSA.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts