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1k reviews for:
Unfuck Your Brain: Using Science to Get Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-Outs, and Triggers
Faith G. Harper
3.21 AVERAGE
1k reviews for:
Unfuck Your Brain: Using Science to Get Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-Outs, and Triggers
Faith G. Harper
3.21 AVERAGE
informative
fast-paced
Firstly the audiobook sucked - it sounds like it was recorded on an old version of the iphone recording app without any equipment.
as for the content, it was nothing new / different / better than any similar book
as for the content, it was nothing new / different / better than any similar book
Listened to this. Read by the author poor recording quality. Didn't find too many useful tips in here, but I appreciated her frankness and logical approach. Also her ability to make me feel normal and perhaps like I don't have any serious issues.
First and foremost: Yes, this book does swear. A lot. I have no issue with the swearing itself, but as an adult looking for books about mental health it comes across as too casual for the topic at hand. Instead of feeling relatable, it instead feels very boring and isolating.
On another note, if you’ve been searching for books about mental health, you’re more than likely already familiar with the points made in it. Yes, much of the material is helpful and features good coping mechanisms, but unless this is ‘baby’s first therapy talk’, you’re not going to get anything groundbreaking or new from it.
I would’ve put this at 3 stars as, while unhelpful to myself personally, I could picture being able to hand this off to a teenager or millennial who could get some mileage from the talking points and humor.
However, what made me drop this from 3 stars to 1 is the section on ‘Eastern Medicine’. Now I’m not against someone finding comfort from things like Reiki or acupuncture (these things can be relaxing and meditative!), but to claim that these things are as potent or BETTER than something like anti-depressants is *incredibly* dangerous.
Someone with chemical imbalances in their body and brain aren’t going to be alleviated by GMO-free diets or ‘energy healing’. I’m a spiritual person myself, but it is completely delusional to tell people who are struggling with mental health issues that ‘western’ forms of medicine are unhelpful in places that ‘eastern’ practices are.
It is not only profoundly unprofessional to suggest that, but it can seriously harm someone desperate for help or even push them into ‘eastern medicine’ circles that are often rife with conspiracy and scams.
Last point to be made is the quality of the audiobook. I don’t know if it was because the author wanted to make this more personal, or if the publisher didn’t want to hire a voice actor to read it, but it is easily the worst quality audio book I have ever listened to.
The author is sitting in what sounds like a large living room as there’s a notable reverb. Theres also cars outside, others in the home speaking, the author’s constant pausing and lip smacking…there’s also noticeable points where the author must’ve paused to go eat or something because sometimes you hear her sit down with a sigh and continue reading as if she just got back. It was painful to sit through, and despite being 4 hours, this zoom call felt like 10.
If there’s going to be any saving grace here, the author/publisher needs to seriously reconsider either getting her into an actual recording booth or bite the bullet and hire a voice actor.
While there are good nuggets of helpful tools and advice here, it’s overshadowed by the overly casual tone and glaring lack of depth. I can’t recommend this, which makes me sad because one of my favorite publishing houses has been boasting this book for years. I was excited to finally snag a copy, but I’m left disappointed by it entirely. If you’re looking for mental health advice, this isn’t the place.
On another note, if you’ve been searching for books about mental health, you’re more than likely already familiar with the points made in it. Yes, much of the material is helpful and features good coping mechanisms, but unless this is ‘baby’s first therapy talk’, you’re not going to get anything groundbreaking or new from it.
I would’ve put this at 3 stars as, while unhelpful to myself personally, I could picture being able to hand this off to a teenager or millennial who could get some mileage from the talking points and humor.
However, what made me drop this from 3 stars to 1 is the section on ‘Eastern Medicine’. Now I’m not against someone finding comfort from things like Reiki or acupuncture (these things can be relaxing and meditative!), but to claim that these things are as potent or BETTER than something like anti-depressants is *incredibly* dangerous.
Someone with chemical imbalances in their body and brain aren’t going to be alleviated by GMO-free diets or ‘energy healing’. I’m a spiritual person myself, but it is completely delusional to tell people who are struggling with mental health issues that ‘western’ forms of medicine are unhelpful in places that ‘eastern’ practices are.
It is not only profoundly unprofessional to suggest that, but it can seriously harm someone desperate for help or even push them into ‘eastern medicine’ circles that are often rife with conspiracy and scams.
Last point to be made is the quality of the audiobook. I don’t know if it was because the author wanted to make this more personal, or if the publisher didn’t want to hire a voice actor to read it, but it is easily the worst quality audio book I have ever listened to.
The author is sitting in what sounds like a large living room as there’s a notable reverb. Theres also cars outside, others in the home speaking, the author’s constant pausing and lip smacking…there’s also noticeable points where the author must’ve paused to go eat or something because sometimes you hear her sit down with a sigh and continue reading as if she just got back. It was painful to sit through, and despite being 4 hours, this zoom call felt like 10.
If there’s going to be any saving grace here, the author/publisher needs to seriously reconsider either getting her into an actual recording booth or bite the bullet and hire a voice actor.
While there are good nuggets of helpful tools and advice here, it’s overshadowed by the overly casual tone and glaring lack of depth. I can’t recommend this, which makes me sad because one of my favorite publishing houses has been boasting this book for years. I was excited to finally snag a copy, but I’m left disappointed by it entirely. If you’re looking for mental health advice, this isn’t the place.
funny
informative
medium-paced
The first few chapters of this are one star material. The author's use of expletives and other common phrases is more distracting than relatable. However, the later chapters do a decent job of explaining certain types of "brain fuckery" in laymen's terms, and gift concrete, actionable ideas for coping with them. It's short - other than the first few chapters, it really sticks to substance (littered with expletives) instead of a bunch of fluff, which I also saw as a positive.
I love a good swear... Shyyyyt I use it all the time but all the swearing throughout this book threw me waaay off... It took me a while to gloss over it and just listen to what she's saying.
There are some good points though, which seemed to have been researched.. Made me nod and thought maybe I'd try some of the tips she suggested. I chuckled here and there at some of the jokes
The delivery though... I think this is geared for a much younger audience as she uses slang and swearing to.. I guess appear more relatable. She comes off like a girlfriend sitting with liquor in hand trying to pysch up her best friend who is feeling down.
Sounds like
Her: "yo.. I get you're sad and I feel you.. But you're a bad bitch and you're stronger than this shyt you're feeling"
The friend: "I AM a bad bitch right?"
Her: "fukk yea you are!"
The friend: "fukk yea I am!"
Also of note.. The audiobook is TERRIBLE. It needs to be redone. There's an echo, I swore I heard furniture move and cars driving by... As well as lip smacking from her and an overall feeling in her tone like she couldn't really be bothered to do it
There are some good points though, which seemed to have been researched.. Made me nod and thought maybe I'd try some of the tips she suggested. I chuckled here and there at some of the jokes
The delivery though... I think this is geared for a much younger audience as she uses slang and swearing to.. I guess appear more relatable. She comes off like a girlfriend sitting with liquor in hand trying to pysch up her best friend who is feeling down.
Sounds like
Her: "yo.. I get you're sad and I feel you.. But you're a bad bitch and you're stronger than this shyt you're feeling"
The friend: "I AM a bad bitch right?"
Her: "fukk yea you are!"
The friend: "fukk yea I am!"
Also of note.. The audiobook is TERRIBLE. It needs to be redone. There's an echo, I swore I heard furniture move and cars driving by... As well as lip smacking from her and an overall feeling in her tone like she couldn't really be bothered to do it
Who This Book is For: EVERYONE! As long as you don't mind some cursing.
What this book does extremely well is take complex information and present it in a an efficient, effective, and accessible manner.
As an experienced clinician it did not necessarily introduce me to new concepts, BUT it did introduce me to clear ways to think about and communicate these concepts.
This book is PACKED with useful information and strategies and it has been a long time since I have felt this strongly about a book like this.
🗒️Main Take-Aways:
📌There are tools and techniques for most mental health challenges
📌Addressing the source and the reason is central do improving how we are long-term
📌While you work on the long-term, there are short-term and immediate tools/strategies that may help you feel better right now
📌There is a lot of information available, and much of the work is finding, distilling, and communicating it
What this book does extremely well is take complex information and present it in a an efficient, effective, and accessible manner.
As an experienced clinician it did not necessarily introduce me to new concepts, BUT it did introduce me to clear ways to think about and communicate these concepts.
This book is PACKED with useful information and strategies and it has been a long time since I have felt this strongly about a book like this.
🗒️Main Take-Aways:
📌There are tools and techniques for most mental health challenges
📌Addressing the source and the reason is central do improving how we are long-term
📌While you work on the long-term, there are short-term and immediate tools/strategies that may help you feel better right now
📌There is a lot of information available, and much of the work is finding, distilling, and communicating it
This book is a quick read that summarises some scientifically-sound information on trauma responses and resulting anxiety/depression that may be useful. However, it also spreads pseudo-science like bashing GMOs with no justifiction, and promoting "alternative" treatments that have no scientific basis to them, including herbal supplements and "energy healing"... Although the author makes a point that these should not replace medical treatments, they also make some big statements about the body's ability to "recognize" synthetic foods/medicines, which are shameful for anyone holding a PhD in a scientific field. I thought this would stick to scientific reasoning, based on title, and was excited to start reading but quickly lost all interest when these statements started to pop up a few chapters in.
Even if this is not a book for scientists, the author went into great detail on brain anatomy and neurological responses, which are surely more complicated subjects. If the author did have a scientific reasoning behind their statements on GMOs and alternative therapies (although they seem contradictory to current scientific knowledge), it is unfortunately lacking in this work.
Even if this is not a book for scientists, the author went into great detail on brain anatomy and neurological responses, which are surely more complicated subjects. If the author did have a scientific reasoning behind their statements on GMOs and alternative therapies (although they seem contradictory to current scientific knowledge), it is unfortunately lacking in this work.
This book has good info on how your brain deals with mental illnesses and ways to go about dealing with them in better ways-- focusing mainly on mental illness aspects related to trauma. There are many side comments during explanations, which when addition to the cursing, make it more accessible to some people. Even though the cursing gets a bit excessive, the book seems to serve the purpose of why it was written. It was an alright quick read that gave me a couple new ways to think about things but that was about it for me, personally.
Not a very good book- TERRIBLE to listen to on audible. Faith recorded it herself and it sounds like she did so in her NYC apartment living room, where background noise and distractions are abundant. Truly awful quality.
The book itself might be helpful if you specifically are dealing with grief or anxiety or trauma- but as someone who is pretty optimistic and privileged, I didn’t need a lot of this and get more educational value by watching episodes of big mouth featuring the depression kitty and Tito the anxiety mosquito.
The book itself might be helpful if you specifically are dealing with grief or anxiety or trauma- but as someone who is pretty optimistic and privileged, I didn’t need a lot of this and get more educational value by watching episodes of big mouth featuring the depression kitty and Tito the anxiety mosquito.