Be Well, a guide to better mental health for all

by Jessica Clemons

From board-certified psychiatrist and social media star Dr. Jessica Clemons, a.k.a. “Dr. Jess”, comes Be Well , a comprehensive, accessible guide to the most common mental health conditions, treatments, and overcoming the stigma surrounding these topics to seek out the care you and your loved ones deserve.   Most of us know how to take care of ourselves physically - we do our best to exercise, eat well, and get enough sleep - but when it comes to our inner lives, we tend to be far less diligent. Not only do we move through our unrelenting to-do lists with no time and space to recharge, we're not even aware of many of the (often invisible) symptoms affecting the tens of millions of Americans living with mental illness.   Dr. Jess is working every day to change that. A New York City psychiatrist and social media star, she's made it her mission to make mental health care universally accessible and to reduce stigma associated with mental illness, particularly in the Black community. Be Well is an informative, inspiring audio experience that will teach listeners all about anxiety, depression, therapy, daily practices for more mindful living, navigating the health-care system, and much more.   No matter where you are on your mental health journey, Be Well is the perfect primer for understanding and maintaining this critical (and too often overlooked) element of wellness.   

Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Audiobook, Nonfiction

Audiobook

Published September 9, 2021

Reviews

[LaGaryce · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Phoenix Perpetuale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be Well written and narrated by Dr Jessica Clemons a special Audible edition is a great and calming source of information for mental help seekers. A lot of advice about how to help to cope with your self when experiencing a mental health issues. The issues and treatments of psychiatric disorders and diseases discussed with Dr's personal experience and opinion on how and what would help to change psychiatric help in NY city and being a special and rare, a black board certificated psychiatrists. She speaks about a racism and encourage people to seek a help when needed especially a black people who might be still exposed to racist ideology. She herself was told that patient preferred not to see a black specialist, which is cruel in today's modern world. A social media part and explanations about her activities to go public with her knowledge, experience is my favourite.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this short book. I thought it gave good information. I felt it was thoughtfully and responsibly written. I wish things like this were available when I was young. Taking care of one's mental health is necessary and important. I love the author's openness and passion for reaching a more broad audience and to draw in people whose upbringings and/or personal narratives don't include getting metal health help.

[Alia · Rating 2 out of 5]

No as described. This young doctor is very articulate and passionate and could probably go on to write a stellar memoir late in her career. But this book is partially an over simplified tutorial on MI but and is ultimately her own journal as she processes some of her experiences as a new psychiatrist. And she doesn’t cover eating disorders at all.

[Ah-Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a breath of fresh air. At the start, I didn’t know how much I needed to read this book and how incredible it was to access such honesty when it comes to wellbeing. I could not recommend this enough for someone in search of getting better, someone with a desire to grow and anyone who is simply interested in knowing more about mental health and well being.

[Anya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let's just medicate everybody.... Pretty disappointed and learned nothing from this book.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

The recording began with a warning:

"This project is presented solely for education and entertainment purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, mental or professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified mental heath professional.".

I think they had to do that for legal purposes. Dr. Clemons does speak in detail about what happens when you need the help of a mental professional. Some might take that as professional advice although I don't see how they could actually do anything with that advice without professional help... like fill a prescription for example.

There are a couple of places here and there where I was not totally sure I agreed, but the vast majority of this audiobook I did agree with.

This is an introduction to what mental illness is and what you can expect from the mental heath system. Do you really need it? What support might you expect? What about alcoholism and drug addiction? Will the doctor turn you in? (No.) What about pregnancy and drugs? Will you get involuntary treatment for thinking about suicide? (Not really unless you just tried to blow your brains out... unsuccessfully... and even then. It depends. Things have changed since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.)

In any case, I was glad the doctor talked about racism and mental illness and why so many black people distrust mental health professionals.

I doubt I will listen to this audiobook again. I know much of this material already, but I was glad I listened.

[Vojtěch Tatra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit medical, good starting info. Good start into the mental health world, especially the official medical approach, based in the US, but with some specificities applied anywhere in the world. . A bit like Lori Gotliebs Maybe You Should Talk to Someone peppered with social media (Instagram) presence and more from the side of psychiatry. Some issues are more specific to healthcare in the USA, which is quite bad in many ways compared to that in Europe for example. I would also advocate that some level of anxiety is normal - the narrative medicalizes any anxiety a bit, albeit it recommends therapy, where I think people can learn to work with it and accept some level of it. The list of therapy is a bit unexhaustive for me, I would mention Rogerian, Systemic, Gestalt at least, and maybe a quick picture of how the session can look overall, but maybe it's not that important for a start.

[Tory Lindberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting to have some major breakthrough of understanding better ways to handle my mental health, especially as seasonal depression hits. Yet I didn’t feel like it encapsulated my feelings. It explained different ways mental health can present itself but it was more of an explanation of what mental illnesses exist and not how to fully help them to me. 7/10.

[Jessica Flaherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good high level overview of the mental health system and various disorders. I’d like a deeper dive into some topics but as someone who has family members that have spent significant time in the mental health system, this was mostly reinforcing what I already knew. I would read more from this doctor though.

[Jada Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super informative and educational if you want to learn about the field of mental health as a whole and gain understanding on how the treatment process works. The book was not quite what I expected to be, so I reached for it less, but I could see how it can be super helpful and beneficial.

[Barb Hildebrandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful information.

[Samantha Rawlinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative especially if you don’t know anything about mental health.

[Raviraj Patil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nicely explained mental health issues

[Nela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprised about this one. Has all the basis of mental illness covered. Highly recommend

[Tomasina Cook]

This book provides mental health coping skills and resources to understand the dynamics of mental illness.

[Raz Lugassi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like It!! Very Informative & Useful

[Shanean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. She provided easy to understand concepts and great examples. Awesome tool for someone coming to terms with their own mental health journey or that of a loved one.

[the thirsty yogis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great read for a person that is interested in starting a relationship with a therapist and taking care of their mental health. Dr. Jess offers a step by step breakdown of the different types of doctors that are available to help and what they offer. She also explains what certain medications are used for & how they can help. Dr. Jess offer anecdotes of “patients” to help clarify what different medical symptoms look like to help the reading make a better connection to themselves. This is not a self help book on the sense that Dr. Jess is telling what you can do to become better. It is a book for a person that is unsure what type of doctor they should seek for mental health help.