--I learnt nothing new. I've googled mental illnesses a bit over the years, read/watched a small number of books/movies related to mental illness, I know a couple people who live with different mental illnesses, and my high school spent at least a half lesson talking about mental illness once so everything in this book is quite repetitive of things I already know (and not in a good way, but more on that later)
--Yes, I knew going into this book that I got it from the children's reference section of my local bookstore, so it's aimed at kids. But wow it really is, I really need to go find myself an adult book somewhere.
--Something that really bugs me: the advice in this book is a whole lot of "speak to your gp/join a support group/seek therapy with a psychologist/psychiatrist/speak to your school nurse/counsellor/check your school/local library for some books on the subject" etc. So I guess the main target market is British kids (since it was written & pub'd there, my point is-) there is no advice for people in third world countries, poor communities, poor families/ who cannot afford seeking a medical professional, paying for medication, schools that do not have nurses/counsellors/libraries, people who come from families/communities that do not take mental illnesses seriously, etc etc etc.
***
--I wrote all of the above when I was about 60 pages into this 200 page book. As I kept reading, this book became more and more frustrating. The advice/words of comfort used can only be applied to people living in first-world countries, or people living considerably privileged lives. All the information given is so summarized and scraping-the-surface that I don't quite recall a description/explanation of something that made me think "wow yep that's great everyone needs to read this". I think the snippets of stories/testimonies from people living with their respective illnesses were my favourite parts, and maybe the "Dr Olivia says..." parts wasn't too bad either (Dr Olivia is a psychologist who throws her 2 cents in every once in a while). There is a very small handful of statistics and information from actual studies conducted, so most of the book feels like it's the author just... *typing things*. Also, and I might just be supersensitive with this, but I felt like the author *wasn't sensitive enough* about these topics. Dawson does state in the beginning of the book that you're not special if you have a (live with a? suffer from? What's the PC term?) mental illness, & she's not going to treat you like you are, which I totally understand, but still, it is a sensitive topic & giving it an air of nonchalance doesn't sit well with me, as a reader.
--Towards the end of the book there was a tiny bit of sympathy towards certain conditions & a few helpful bits of information. Although, the author was super judgemental about people who drink in excess, smoke, & do drugs - & yes I understand that these are terrible things & while I don't do these things myself, reading her opinions gave me an "idgaf about your opinion" attitude, which I imagine most people would feel while reading that- & how are you gonna help people when you sound like you think they're scum?
--Anyway. I'm annoyed. I would still like to read another of Dawson's books "This Book is Gay" & I really really really hope it's better than this one was!