Hi everyone! I hope you are having a lovely weekend. I'm back with a brand new book review post today. It's been a while but I'm back again. I decided to spend a little time away from blogging and posting regular on social media. I think sometimes it's just something we need to do from time to time. I have been struggling with my anxiety and OCD a lot recently, but I am determined to win. I just needed a little break, it also made me realise how much I have missed blogging. A little while ago I shared on a blog post, three pieces of audio that I created for my third year audio project. You can listen to them here. In two of the audio pieces, I did them on anxiety and OCD. I would love to know what think of them. I wanted to create something to show my experiences and how having OCD and anxiety effects me personally. I've recently started having CBT sessions. So far I am finding them to be very helpful and also very interesting, in learning more about OCD and also learning more about myself, if that makes sense.
So for todays post I am sharing with you my review of Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon. Bryony is an author, a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and has a podcast called Mad World, where she discusses mental health with a different guest each week. Her first guest on the Mad World podcast was Prince Harry. She also has another book out called The Wrong Knickers. This book as Bryony says, is an honest book and no miracle cure can be found in it, but it is a book in which Bryony talks about her experiences with living with mental illness and her experiences with struggling with OCD. Mad Girl is brilliantly written and includes humour along with a more serious side and full of emotion. Straight away from the beginning I wanted to read more and more.
This book firstly starts of with an introduction and Bryony explains why she has written this book and also talks about her struggles with mental illness, including how much more should be done for people who want and need help. In the first chapter the book then goes into more detail about Bryony's experiences of mental illness from a young age. Whenever anyone asks how am I, I will always most definitely say that I'm good or I'm ok, but usually thats not always the case. It's only now that I am able to tell people how I am really feeling and also show this through my blog and social media. There are so many inspiring people out there, and Bryony Gordon has really helped me a lot to speak out about my struggles with mental health. In the book Bryony says that she wasn't able to talk about her struggles with OCD and also depression, she felt too ashamed and frightened to. I can relate so much to this, as this is how I have been feeling up to recently. As I mentioned above, I feel that I can speak out about my struggles with mental health and I also created two audio pieces for my University project on my anxiety and OCD.
Bryony says "If as a journalist, who writes personal columns and candid books, I felt I couldn't admit to these things, then what hope was there for everyone else? What hope did we have in destroying the stigma attached to mental illness?" This quote from from the book, I can relate so much to. By reading peoples stories and experiences with OCD and Anxiety I suddenly felt that I wasn't alone. Because people are speaking out about mental illness it made me realise that I shouldn't be ashamed of speaking out about it and if I can share with people my experiences, then maybe I can help someone too.
Bryony is such an inspiration and is so brave. I'm so pleased that I got this book and I highly recommend checking it out. Mad Girl is honest, raw and a must-read book. Through personal experiences, we are able to look at the relationship Bryony has with OCD and depression and the reasons why it is so important to speak out about mental illness.
Have you read Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon?