Reviews

The Guide to Good Mental Health on the Autism Spectrum by Yenn Purkis, Emma Goodall, Jane Nugent

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lottie1803's review

hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

I found this book in my local library and picked it up thinking it might help me. It was a very interesting read. Not only do the authors give tips for autistic folk with anxiety/depression, they also touch on how these diagnoses might present differently in autistic people.

They not only talk about anxiety and depression though. Multiple mental health and neurological diagnoses are dived into. From schizophrenia to bipolar. It was an eye-opening read, and I would 100% recommend it to people interested in these topics.

It's super accessible and easy to read.

lupetuple's review

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3.0

It was interesting to note several things I hadn't been aware of regarding my own experience, but I was aware of a lot of the information presented here. I'd say the advice is sound, but I still found the book to be a bit lacking surrounding the common experiences of trauma among autistic people. There were a few mentions of PTSD and even one of CPTSD, but nothing like the devotion of an entire section to such issues, which I think is an oversight. I appreciated the acknowledgment of psychosis though; the section was not stigmatizing at all and I like how it said that it's not bad to have schizophrenia and autism at the same time, even if perhaps one may have been misdiagnosed as psychotic due to misunderstanding by clinicians, and that it shouldn't be dismissed if you do indeed have psychotic experiences.

A big thing that bothered me was that most of the attention in the personal stories in particular went to people identified as having Asperger's. Using the term at all without the purpose of intelligibility (in terms of historical uses) when it's been proven to elevate certain autists above others doesn't sit well with me. I think that the book did try to reach autists across the spectrum but over and over I'd read "I was diagnosed with Asperger's ..." So there's that.

beasbookburrowxo's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

2.0

mesy_mark's review

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2.0

With this book i see that more common things are explained but I was looking for this as someone also with psychosis spectrum disorder, and I was sorely disappointed, It seemed that it was more relied on as a misdiagnosis, and while the sensory and yes directness can be misinterpreted it does lack how when combined it can be an even more precious hell as overloading collides with what is being interpreted by the brain by false stimuli. Maybe cause I've dealt with it s long I felt nothing when reading that section in particular other than the personal story to know hey, a combo disorder collection like that exists,

Onto the rest, Aspergers is an outdated term considering its origins. So I did not appreciate that and other than that the information seemed too general. to oversimplified, Not for a level that is looking into generic tips that have a slight "look out for that things will be extra with also beig autistic."