Summary
"Not Okay? Okay.: A Roadmap Back from the Brink" is a self-help book by Sheridan Taylor. Sheridan is a Canadian army combat veteran, former corrections officer, and a suicide survivor. He has been diagnosed with treatment-resistant complex PTSD, clinical depression, mood disorder, and general anxiety disorder. He is also an alcoholic and his wife of over twenty years died after a two-year losing battle with her own mental illness. In this book, he shares his lifetime struggle with mental illness after having explored everything that affects his brain: genetics, history, social-political-religious systems, grief, trauma, etc.
Review
I have mixed feelings about this book. While I think it will be very beneficial to a lot of people, I think there were a few offensive statements that were better left unsaid. But then that’s just my opinion. That part when he said that television and movies sell garbage and will make you dumber just plainly disrespects people behind the entertainment industry. He was all about humanity. Well, I think it’s just inhumane to disregard certain types of careers and hobbies just because you don’t enjoy them. I love writing, reading books, spending quality time with family and friends, just as much as I also love watching television and movies. I am an ambivert. And yes, social media also gives me happiness because it gives me an update about the people and things I love. Whether streaming platforms and social media platforms can ruin your life or make it more enjoyable is all up to the consumer and not up to anyone else.
Nevertheless, despite taking offense in some stuff that the author said in this book, I’m still giving this book 5 out of 5 stars because that’s the rating it deserves. It’s the most comprehensive and simplified book out of all the self-help and other guidebooks I’ve read so far about mental health. I also like how he self admittedly told readers that there are things he does or tell people to do which don’t coincide with his own belief and I think that’s just how complex a human’s mind is. Like at one point, I want to hug the author for all the struggles he had to go through and for sharing this wonderful book, but I also want to pinch his shoulder and glare at him for saying something negative about something that gives me joy. Well, that’s just how the world works, we are all different in one way or another and we should just accept those differences instead of hating one another. I highly recommend this book to readers who are into self-help books.
https://www.amazon.com/Not-Okay-Okay-Roadmap-Brink-ebook/dp/B0BG6QJDLD/ref
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