**"A Glimpse into Mental Health: Why I Love 'The Power' and 'What I Lost'"**
It's really the story of Reggie and Snake as they start to open up to each other for the first time, come to terms with what it means to live and to be with other people, and what it means to be depressed and how to work past that. Come to terms with what it means to live and to be with other people and what it means to be depressed and how to work past that and I really really really really really really love this book. It's just so different because I feel like this book really focuses on the anger and bitterness and resentment that can come from depression and not just the sadness and hopelessness and worthlessness that we always see in the media. Like I feel like this book focuses on different types of depression that real people do experience that aren't really publicized and a lot of people don't get represented by.
Reggie may not be suicidal, but she's cold and she's hard and and she just doesn't give a damn anymore, and this boy comes into her life that is the first person who truly understands what she's going through. She starts to realize that there's maybe more for her and there's maybe things that she can do to overcome all of this pain that she's been experiencing to live a life where she feels that she's happy and healthy and thriving. So if you're somebody who is interested in reading more books about depression, but you'd like to get a little insight onto how it affects other people and not just the same story we see over and over again, I'd really really recommend "Definitions of Indefinable Things". I think it is such a strong novel and again, I would just it's so good. Please read it.
**"A Glowing Review of 'What I Lost'"**
I'm so happy with how many mental illness own voices novels I have on this list this year. About anorexia, our main character's name is Elizabeth, and she's recently been admitted to an inpatient facility for people dealing with eating disorders. Elizabeth's view is that she's not really sick. She doesn't need to be here. She's just gonna do her time, get out, and go back to living this life of disordered eating habits.
I have a 20-minute spoiler-review on my channel of what I lost so I don't about any spoilers, but I do talk a lot about this book because I just have so many glowing things to say about it. If you're interested in reading "What I Lost", I definitely recommend making a cup of tea, setting aside some time, and watching that review because I was blown away with how accurate well-represented and just all-around phenomenal this novel was.
Other than having amazing representation for anorexia, containing an abundance of factual correct recent information related to eating disorders, it's focused on recovery which is not something we get a lot in mental illness books. Many books about mental health are focused on the progression of one's illness from when it starts as they're really suffering and at the very end of the novel, they start getting help. This is like the very end of the novel when Elizabeth has started getting help, and it's all about her experience and treatment and learning that her eating disorder doesn't have to have control over her.
It's one of my all-time favorite mental health novels, and it's absolutely my number one recommendation for eating disorders and just four books about general mental health recovery in general because the message of recovery is possible. It's just so strong in this book, and that is immensely important to me. I would recommend reading "What I Lost" a million times over. It is just literally one of the best mental health novels in the game, and it absolutely deserves more hype for the amazingness that it contains.
**Mental Health Book Recommendations**
Don't forget that mental illness awareness week is happening at a different location this year on a new channel that I have worked my butt off for. So, I really hope you guys enjoy those videos and are interested in coming along on this journey with me. Firstly, let me know in the comments below if you have read any of the books on this list and what you thought of them. I am somebody who is always willing to accept other people's opinions when it comes to their personal representation.
So even if I loved a book that represented one of my illnesses, it might have represented you differently, and that is totally okay? I would love to hear your experience and of course, let me know any mental illness book recommendations that you have. Because you know I am a hoe for those books, and I am always down to try them out.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey, what's up? Hello?My name is EmmaAnd it is once againmental illness Awareness WeekIf you have only found my channel in the last 11 months you may not know that last year for mental illness Awareness WeekWhich is always the first week of OctoberI did a week where the video is related to mental health and booksSo I talked about some mental health book recommendationssome books about mental health that were on my tbr some books that personally spoke to my own mental illnessesI had a discussion about the need for varying experiencesin regards to characters with mental illnessI talked about some mental health books that I want to read in the future if they are written or will be written in thefuture and finally I shared my personal mental illness story, so if you want to check out all ofLast year's videos for mental illness Awareness Week as well as the otherMany many videos about books and mental health that I do have on my channel my mental health books playlist will be linked belowSo in honor of mental illness Awareness Week I wanted to post a second recommendations video with all new mental illness books, but unfortunatelyMental illness Awareness Week isn't taking place this year on this channelCuz it is taking place on a brand new channel that I just launched todayWhat I have finally launched the channel that has been in the works for over a year nowIt is called Emma GiordanoIt is linked below, and it is all focused on videos related to mental health and psychology so on that channelI have one video posted that is an introductory video on my sort of plans for that channel and just likeIntroducing this new chapter of my youtube life and for the rest of the week on that channelI will have six videos dedicated to mental health awareness where I will be talking about six of the many differentClassifications of mental illness about their criteria and symptomology and all of those really cool thingsSo I'm not gonna go too much into it right now because that's the whole point of that introductory videoBut I am so excited and overwhelmed and terrified, but ultimatelyreally really looking forward to starting a new chapter in my youtube journey with you guys about the other half of my life that IAm so unbelievably passionate about so if you want to check out that channelMaybe subscribe if those are some things you're interested in if you want to check out the official mental illness Awareness Week for this yearDefinitely head on over to my new channel, but today. I of courseTo give you some new mental health book recommendations firstlyI want to talk about under roasting disguise by Louise Cornell which follows a main character named Nora who suffers from anxiety OCD andAgoraphobia under roasting disguise is actually a known voice of novel meaning that the author of this novel hasexperienced the same illnesses or the same generalmarginalization as the main character of this novel so for Nora the combination of anxiety OCD andagoraphobia isimmenselycrippling to the point where Nora has rarely left her house for the past few years so boy named Luke moves in next door andas he tries to her friend Nora NoraConvinces herself that he deserves somebody better than her who isn't plagued by all these mental health issuesSo as the friendship between these two teens develops as well as some romantic feelings Nora starts to question if she's really asDamaged as she's always considered herself to be and if maybe she can see herself in a different lightThere is also an additional trigger warning for self-harm on this bookBut this absolutely is one of my favorite mental health books that I have ever read as y-aOften incorporates a romance and a couple of other books on this list do you have romances as wellNone of these are a love-turn novelNora'sDevelopment is entirely based on herself and her own personal growth and that is just always an essential thing for me to see in mental-healthNovels, there's certain rap in this book that I can't speak for personallyBut you can absolutely tell that it is written in an authentic way by somebody who truly knows what it's like to experienceThese illnesses, and it just comes across in such a way that you can't helpbut be impacted by Nora's story Nora is truly a brave soul andExperiencing her story has just touched me in so many ways that I'm so grateful to have experienced itSo just thank you so much to Louise for writing this storyAnd I would highly highly recommend it if you're looking for a book that deals with these topics because it is the truth the absoluteCold hard truth the next book on this list is history is all you left me by Adam SilveiraWhich is another own voices novel that deals with obsessive compulsiveDisorder now what I especially like about history is all you left me is this isn't a novel that is like strictlyfocused on our main characters griffin's OCDThere is so much else going on in this bookAnd it just so happens that the main character also deals with the mental illnessWhich is not something we get a lot like we normal get mental illness storiesWe don't often get stories with mentally ill characters, so like that is a noveltyI really appreciated seeingHistory is all you left me is told any past and present and it follows our main character named Griffinwho in the present has recently lost the past love of his life and before his ex-boyfriend Theo's death they had broken up andTheo was dating a new boy named Jackson so in the past sections of this book we seeGriffin and Theo's love story we see the development of theirRelationship the fall the breakup the start of Theo and Jackson dating but Griffin still loving TheoUp until it meets up in the present where we have Griffin and Jackson who have just recently attended Theo'sfuneral and these two boys develop this sort of likeunlikely camaraderieBased on the fact that they are the only two people that know what they're going through because they were in love with the samePerson so I really love the portrayal of Griffin's OCD in this storyBecause I can tell how authentic it is like I know Adam personallyHe's a really great friend of mine and by knowing AdamYou can tell that like all of this in Griffin's story is also stuff that Adamexperiences for example when my best friend Michael booklionAnd I were talking with Adam one day at the History eventAdam had expressed that Griffin is always on somebody's left because Adam is always on somebody's leftBecause of their OCD and I was Adam Silveira has literally never been on my rightAnd I never noticed before likeThe little sorts of manifestations of OCD that are in Griffin's story are also so true and part of AdamsAnd it is so clear that it's an authenticPortrayal similar to the way that Luke responds to Nora's mental illness in under Rose tainted skies the other people in Griffin's lifeDon't make it out like his OCD are quirks or problems or anything like they're reallyaccepting and they're willingTo work around it Griffin's needs which isSo wonderful and healthy to see and although this book deals with so much grief and heaviness and also some sort of romance itReally is about Griffin's personal development, and we really see so much change in him that comes from the heartAnd that is always something I like to see in books about mental health historyis all you left me is a type of book that will make you laugh. It is the type of bookThat'll make you cryIt's the kind of book where you're gonna want to rip it into because oh my god the twist in this novel are so wildI still am not over itIt's a really fabulous truthful honest mental-health novel and I would absolutely recommend it next on my list of mental healthRecommendations is a tragic kind of wonderful by Eric Lindstrom, which features a main character who deals with bipolar disorderI have to say althoughI do not have any personal experience with bipolar disorderAnd I can really only base my interpretation of this novel based on my studies and my own personal research on the topic. I reallyReally loved this book this book. Hit me in a way that so many booksDon't like by the end of this novel I was in piecesI truly truly emphasized with our main character Mel and all of these struggles that she has gone through because like it is aHard-hitting book the only people in Mel's life. Who know she has bipolar disorder are her familyShe has had very close friends in the past that are still sort of in her lifeand she has a new group of friends and none of them have ever known about her bipolar disorder andKeeping that secret has caused a lot of issues for her in the past and so this book really tells the story ofMal coming to terms with her bipolar disorder learning how to cope and how to open up about it to friendsAnd it's just such a beautiful novel and although I can't tell you if the representation of bipolar disorder is good because againI don't have it myselfI will tell you it is definitely well researchedAnd it has a lot of crucialInformation related to bipolar disorder that I was very happy to see as a psych student a tragic kind of wonderful is one of thoseBooks where you really have to experience it yourself like there's so muchI want to talk about but I don't want to spoil anyone because the way the story is constructed is soemotional and powerfulAnd if you're interested in reading more mental health books especially about ones that don't get a lot ofRepresentation because there are just so many books about depression and anxiety and eating disorders and things like bipolar disorder aren't often picked upSo the fact that this book exists is so amazing and it's an amazing novelSo I really really recommend you pick it up next book on this list isdefinitions of indefinable things by Whitney TaylorWhich is another own voices novel as it features two teens who are depressedI actually did a sponsored review of definitions of indefinable things of course all opinions are my own if I'm still talking about how muchI love it, so I will link that belowAnd I also have a review of history is all you left me if you want to check that out as wellAs I've literally just said we have a ton of books about depressed teensbut definitions of indefinable things is so unique andIndividual that it definitely deserves more hype so her main character's name is ReggieAnd as she is currently in treatment for her depressionShe is at CVS one day picking up her medication when she meets another boy named Snake who is also picking up his depression medicationand the two sort of gravitate towards each other asThey are the only two individuals in each other's lives who know what it's like to be depressed the issue is thatSeven months ago Snake got one of Reggie's classmates pregnantSo it's really the story of Reggie and Snake as they start to open up to each other for the first timecome to terms with what it means to live and to be with other people and what it means to be depressed and how toWork past that and I really really really really really really love this bookIt's just so different because I feel like this book really focuses on the anger and bitterness and resentment that can come fromDepression and not just the sadness and hopelessness and worthlessness that we always see in the media like I feel like this book focuses onDifferent types of depression that real people do experience that aren't really publicized and a lot of people don't get represented byReggie may not be suicidalBut she's cold and she's hard and and she just doesn't give a damn anymoreand this boy comes into her life that is the first person who truly understands what she's going through andShe starts to realize that there's maybe more for herAnd there's maybe things that she can do to overcomeAll of this pain that she's been experiencing to live a life where she feels that she's happy and healthy and thrivingSo if you're somebody who is interested in reading more books about depressionBut you'd like to get a little insight onto how it affects other people and not just the same story we see over and overAgain, I'd really really recommend definitions of indefinable things. I think it is such a strong novel and againI would just it's so good. Please read it the next bookI want to talk about is what I lost by Alexandra Ballard, which is another own voices novelI'm so happy with how many mental illness own voices novels I have on this list this yearAbout anorexia our main character's name is ElizabethAnd she's recently been admitted to an inpatient facilityFor people dealing with eating disorders and Elizabeth's view is that she's not really sick. She doesn't need to be hereShe's just gonna do her time get out and go back to living this life of disordered eating habitsI have a 20-minute spoiler-review on my channel of what I lost so I don't about any spoilersBut I do talk a lot about this book because I just have so many glowing things to say about it if you're interested inreading what I lost I definitely recommend making a cup of tea settin' aside some time and watching that review because I wasBlown away with how accurate well represented and just all-aroundphenomenal this novel was other than having amazing representation for anorexiacontaining an abundance ofFactual correct recent information related to eating disorders and like the most beautiful story it isFocused on recovery which is not something we get a mental illness books a lot so many books about mentalHealth are focused on the progression of one's illness from when it starts as they're really suffering and at the very end of the novelThey start getting helpThis is like the very end of the novel when Elizabeth has started getting helpand it's all about her experience and treatment andlearning that like her eating disorder doesn't have to have control over her and there are things that she can do andTypes of treatment she can enter to live a better life, and it is so powerful my godIt is one of my all-time favorite mental health novels and it's absolutely my number one recommendationFor eating disorders and just four books about general mental health recovery in general because the message of recovery is possibleIt's just so strong in this book and that is immensely important to meI would recommend reading what I lost a million times overIt is just literally one of the best mental health novels in the game, and it absolutely deserves morehype for the amazingness that it containsSo I'd really really recommend this one so that is really it for my video for mental illness Awareness Week on mental health bookRecommendations don't forget that mental in this awareness week isHappening at a different location this year on a new channel that I have worked my butt offFor so I really hope you guys enjoy those videos and are interested in coming along on this journey with me so firstlyLet me know in the comments below if you have read any of the books on this list and what you thought of themI am somebody who is always willing toAccept other people's opinions when it comes to their personal representation so even if I loved a book that represented one of my illnessesIt might have represented you differently and that is totally okay? I would love to hear your experience and of courseLet me know any mental illness book recommendations that you have me because you know I am a hoe for those booksAnd I am always down to try them out, but that is it for this videoThank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you soon for a new one bye\n"
