A to Z of Mental Health – Book Review

Front Page – A to Z of Mental Health

Book: A to Z of Mental health

Author: Arjun Gupta

Reviewed By: Manas Mukul

Publisher: Self – published

Price: Free (As of now)

Pages: 60 (pdf)

Language: English

My rating: 2.5/5

According to WHO, India is one of the most depressed countries. The modern frantic lifestyle, stressful workplace environment, toxic social atmosphere, nuclear families, alienating individuals and to some extent genetics; all are playing their part in making our lives more taxing and hence the exponential surge in cases of mental illness and depression.

Gone are those days when visit to a psychiatrist was always tagged as ‘one’ has gone mad. People these days are more open to discuss their mental illness and have slowly started getting acceptance that whosoever, is suffering with mental issue is not a lunatic. With proper medication and supervision along with affectionate care and love these mental illnesses can be better dealt with if not cured.

‘A to Z of Mental Health’ by Arjun Gupta tries to put this issue into spotlight. He gives his best to bust the myths, state facts, highlight causes and suggest remedies pertaining to several mental issues including depression. For me to do this review honestly I do have to mention this. ‘A to Z of Mental Health’ seemed less of a book and more of a detailed case study on depression. Now that it is out of the way lets move ahead with the review of the content.

The book doesn’t have a cover page plus there is a knight of steel logo that embeds a Dark knight and a superman logo, which doesn’t have a correlation with the book and about which Arjun might have some copyright issues. Furthermore, there are few images missing and a lot of formatting issues, which I am sure Arjun will take care before taking it forward.

There are a lot of positives going for the book. The content is diverse and adequately researched where the author touches base with many topics that lend a lot of credibility and depth. I still felt he could have gone all out and incorporated more areas. Some of the stats are really astonishing and can really work as an eye-opener for people working in this sector. This one really caught my attention – ‘In 2008, the number of people at risk of suicide in India was 2.1 out of 10. This number rose to an astonishing 8.21 out of 10 by July 2016.’

The vocabulary of the book is decent and only 60 pages surely helps it being a fast read. The author carefully tackles the gloomy and difficult theme of mental illness and depression and brings life to such context with few jokes and quotes stitching it close to his personal encounter with depression. ‘It is easy to smile, it is much harder to be happy’ – a quote from the book.

In this fight against mental illness and depression this is just a start and we have a really long way to go. But I would like to congratulate Arjun that it is a promising start and would encourage him to pursue his path. I am going with two and half out of five for this good debut effort from Arjun Gupta for ‘A to Z of Mental health’

Manas ‘Sameer’ Mukul

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One giveaway, he is soon launching his youtube channel to discuss on the same issue. Do look out for that. You can download a FREE copy of the same Ebook here.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Blogchatter for giving me an opportunity to publish my work in an ebook format and showcase my work to the world. You can download my Ebook from the same carnival here.