Your Mental Health: A Layman's Guide to the Psychiatrist's Bible

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the most thoughtful self-help book ever written.
Review: This is a valuable guide to psychiatric diagnosis and treatment that is immensely helpful for patients and their families. It also provides a fascinating view of human nature for the general reader. The authors illustrate how each of the mental disorders is an exaggeration of normal tendencies that have gotten out of hand. This helps a person suffering from a mental illness to feel less strange, alone, and helpless. An uplifting book that changed the way I see the world and the people in it, including myself.

Rating:
Summary: User friendly , should be compulsory reading in college
Review: This manual dispels the stigma about mental health and explains the different problems and disorders in a friendly and cheerful way. It is interesting to see that substance abuse (alcohol and drugs) can lead to a variety of psychiatric disorders that can equally be cured once abstinence occurs. I think this is a very relevant read for any college student who is subjected to rites of passage and other unhealthy pressure from peers to drink and take drugs excessively. The other topics discussed are exceptionally well handled and provide clear instructions and advice for those seeking to help themselves and others.