“Shhh! Don’t
talk about mental health”
attempts to destigmatise mental health awareness with the help of history,
facts and statistics. The author Arjun Gupta clarifies in the beginning “This
is not a self-help book. This is a book on psychology”. Thereby, the book doesn’t
just tell you “you’re beautiful and unique, and you don’t deserve to be depressed.”
Rather, it puts to light the seriousness of enormous impending issues related to
depression and anxiety. Well researched and factual, Arjun writes his book to
subjectively eliminate the stigmas associated with it, and show it just the way
it is.
The book has been
written in a way that each and every one of you will have a takeaway from it,
whether or not you’ve been through depression yourself. It starts off with the
story of a fictitious character Yashasvi, exploring his depressed condition
and how he manages to conquer his depression to emerge victorious, and lead a happy
healthy life once again. Through this character, Arjun encompasses the entire
youth of the world—the kind who are constantly turned down when they express their
rupture of mental peace, the ones who are afraid of confessing that they are
going through depression, and the ones who are fighting with depression and anxiety
like a warrior. This universal, all inclusive tone of the book is what makes it
so personal and sympathetic, and urges you to devour it at one sitting.
Arjun writes quite
technically. Being a student of psychology, he doesn’t just go on giving
motivational advice. He beautifully separates sadness and melancholy from
depression, and he does so with the help of collected data and references. The
introduction to mental health comes not before the history and course of mental
health awareness has been traced back in time. He draws lines from numerous
incidents scattered in the past, and proves that how depression isn’t a
man-made syndrome tactically manufactured by counsellors to make money in the
20th century. He harps on the perennialism of mental health, and
projects its probable future. In a way, Arjun teaches us how to approach any kind
of mental health topic. We all might be knowing that The Bhagvad Gita is
basically a discourse by Krishna to Arjuna, in the middle of the battlefield.
Did we ever think that this philosophical exchange of dialogues could ever be a
subtle hint of the prospect of counselling a depressed person?
For someone who isn’t
convinced that depression is as real as cancer, this book is a must! This book
deserves a read from the whole population, adults and children alike. Technical
and well-structured, “Shhh! Don’t talk about mental health” is therefore invariably
recommended.
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