Book #29: Anxious Man by Josh Roberts
Number of pages: 208
When Josh Roberts was younger, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with anxiety disorder, which is what drove him to write this book. I wasn't sure what to expect about it, but I found it to be a comprehensive essay about mental health issues.
I noticed that, as well as mentioning his anxiety, Josh Roberts also mentioned issues such as his obsessive compulsive disorder (for example, several rituals he has to do before going to bed) and other issues that he faced in the past, including obesity, suicidal thoughts and alcoholism, and also how he overcame his issues.
One thing that struck me a lot was his reluctance to tell others, and desire to hide what was going on inside him as much as he could, like not wanting colleagues to know that he was crying in the toilets, and this seems to be a common problem with young men. I also enjoyed reading the chapter about how he was affected by outdated "macho man" stereotypes that he felt forced to conform to when he was younger (the whole idea that men reading books was "not normal" for example).
I enjoyed this book overall, with the writer's self-deprecating humour that occasionally surfaces, and it seems like something that would be useful for sufferers of mental health disorders, and people who know others who are going through them, in knowing how to respond, and how not to. I certainly agreed with him telling people not to say things like "pull yourself together", which just seems to display a lack of empathy for the other person.
Stephen Fry was also a good choice to write the foreword to this book, because of his own well-publicised battles with bipolar disorder.
Definitely a recommended book.
Next book: Cosmic Ordering (Jonathan Cainer)