It's Not OK to Feel Blue (and other lies) Inspirational people open up about their mental health

In some ways this was tiresome to read because it made me think of my own mental health and my own limitations when it comes to it. However, most often reading this felt like a warm hug, when so many people shared their struggles in an effort to make us feel less alone.

I’m going to be honest, I didn’t read this traditionally. I learnt my mistake with Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies. So what I did with this book was read the essays by the people I was interested in hearing from: Matt Haig, Davina McCall, Reggie Yates, Fern Cotton, Emma Thompson, and a fair few others. There are about 70 essays in here and I read maybe 30 in one go, that I wanted to read. I went through the whole book, pinpointing the essays I will not read (some of the poetry isn’t for me I’m afraid!), bookmarking the ones I wanted to read straight away and ensuring I kept track in the contents of who I read and who I haven’t. Having read over half of the essays by now and having read the ones that I bought the book for specifically, I’m saying that I have read the book. This may not work for some people, but having read some reviews, I didn’t want to get bored and be skipping over some of the essays at the end - I wanted to read the ones that were important to me first! An important topic well discussed by different people, all of whom portray mental illness in different ways, opening up more discussions for readers and people around us. Don’t read it all in order, according to a few reviews this will bore you. Pick your favourites, read them. Look at reviews which pinpoint the best essays (I found the one by Ella Purnell through a review) and try those. Don’t read them all just to tick a box. Read them because you want to, because you’re on the mood. I’ll be returning to my book when I need and when I want; maybe I’ll read Matt Haig again, or maybe I’ll pick one I haven’t tried before.

I took my time reading this, dipping in and out of it over a few months and I loved that the way this book is formatted allowed me to do this. This is a balanced, inclusive and nuanced collection of autobiographical essays, art and poetry exploring not only themes of mental health but also race, gender, sexuality and money. It's a collection have no doubt will be a huge comfort for many readers. People having open and honest discussions is the only way we're going to be able to break the stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness. But the sheer amount of contributors to this collection gives me hope that, as a society, we're finally slowly moving forward in terms of these conversations.