Nathan Filer has written this amazing book which I could not put down. Written about mental health, this book tells personal stories from the perspective of suffers and their loved ones. There are uncomfortable parts and some sections that made me cry, this book really does shine a light on the world of severe mental health crisis’ and how it feels to be in that world.
Suffering Psychosis or not, we all have things on our minds that can have an impact on the things we do next, this following extract really resonated with me: “an unconscious tendency to overestimate the likelihood of something happening. This can be influenced by how recently a memory, opinion, or worry was formed, as well as how unusual or emotionally charged it is. It’s why nobody wants to go swimming in the sea, after they’ve just watched jaws.”
This was a book I had to lend to a colleague and one I know I will read again. I also want to read more by this author, himself an ex psychiatric nurse who had to deal with people in the depths of their despair. Nathan describes beautifully what suffers and their families are experiencing and the journeys they have had. He has had to medicate people who have been desperate to be left alone, believing that they are being poisoned. This book really took me into a world where I understood so much more about what the mind does to protect us when it believes we are in danger and the lengths people go to for their families.
An amazing book.
Victoria Warwick-Jones Counselling 