Guest Post – Mental Health TBR by Nancy Tucker

I have recently been sent a copy of The Time Inbetween by Nancy Tucker by the brilliant @sablecaught who works at Icon Books.  I have not got around to reading it yet, but it is high on my TBR pile and is set to be an insprational read!

My own review will follow shortly but for now here is a bit about the book….

When Nancy Tucker was eight years old, her class had to write about what they wanted in life. She thought, and thought, and then, though she didn’t know why, she wrote: ‘I want to be thin.’ Over the next twelve years, she developed anorexia nervosa, was hospitalised, and finally swung the other way towards bulimia nervosa. She left school, rejoined school; went in and out of therapy; ebbed in and out of life. From the bleak reality of a body breaking down to the electric mental highs of starvation, hers has been a life held in thrall by food. Told with remarkable insight, dark humour and acute intelligence, The Time in Between is a profound, important window into the workings of an unquiet mind – a Wasted for the 21st century.

I was over the moon to be asked to be part of the blog tour for this books espcially as this week is Mental Health Awareness week…something I am hugely passionate about supporting!  You can find out more here where you can find advise and support for anyone who needs it whether you are suffering or know some one who is.

Therefore I asked the brilliant author Nancy Tucker who has struggled with Mental Health for a long time to share some books that are on the top of her TBR pile that champion mental health!  And she has picked some great reads that I will be adding to my pile straight away!

*hands over to Nancy*

There is also a brilliant giveaway over on Goodreads!  I will pop the link at the bottom of the post!

Top five mental health memoirs I would like to read by Nancy Tucker

Reason to Stay Alive – Matt Haig

I know, I am shamefully late to the party with this one! I don’t tend to feel quite the same magnetic pull to depression memoirs as I do to those which explore eating disorders, simply because I’ve never personally suffered from depression in its own right, only as a by-product of anorexia/bulimia. But I’ve heard amazing things about this book, its message and the hope it conveys, so am really excited to read it.

 The Man Who Couldn’t Stop – David Adam

I always think OCD is the disorder with the most to contend with in terms of public ignorance, misunderstanding and general stupidity, so I am really intrigued to see how this book undermines common misconceptions and explores the way in which ‘normal’ obsessions/compulsions are elevated to a torturous extreme in OCD sufferers. There’s also a personal interest for me, as though I’ve never personally experienced OCD I do think there is a significant overlap between OCD and anorexia in terms of attempting to feel safe through ritualised behaviour.

 An Unquiet Mind – Kay Redfield Jamison

I’ve heard this referred to as ‘the definitive text on manic depression’, so it feels like a good place to start in terms of learning about a condition I currently understand very little. Though I’ve never suffered from anything even approaching manic depression myself, the notion of uncontrollable swings between mania and despair is one which does feel a little familiar to me – albeit on a much more muted scale – and I am interested to see how Jamison balances recounting her own experiences of the disorder with giving her professional insight as a clinician.

 Elena Vanishing – Elena & Clare Dunkle

An eating disorder book which I’ve not read is a rare thing indeed, so I am very excited to get my hands on this when it is released in a couple of weeks! As far as I can tell it is a co-written account of a mother and daughter’s struggle with the daughter’s anorexia, which isn’t a novel concept (Hungry – Sheila & Lisa Himmel; Alice in the Looking Glass – Jo & Alice Kingsley) but one which I think usually works very well, as anorexia often has the most profound effect on the relationship between mother and daughter.

 Life is Trichy – Lindsey M Muller

This is a memoir exploring the author’s struggle with trichotillomania (compulsive hair-pulling), dermatillomania (compulsive skin-picking), and a cluster of other anxiety-based problems. I’m mainly interested in the fact that the author is herself a therapist, so spent years hiding her own struggles from clients, some of whom presented with the very same struggles she herself was facing. I hope to train as a counselling psychologist in the future, and often find myself wondering whether my own experience of mental illness will augment or diminish my ability to help those I treat, so I am really interested to read about how that balance worked in someone else’s life.

A huge thank you to Nancy for a brilliant guest post and for Stevie at Icon Books for asking me to be part of this wonderful tour and for sending me a copy of the book….I can’t wait to read!

You can follow Nancy Tucker on twitter using – @NancyCNTucker

You can buy this book here or why not order it in at your local bookshop 🙂

Or find out more over at Icon Books here

About Nancy Tucker

Nancy Tucker is a 20-year-old author and nanny. She suffered from both anorexia and bulimia nervosa throughout her teens, but is now on the road to recovery and has gained a place at Oxford to study Experimental Psychology in 2015. She lives in London.

Giveaway!

Hope on over to Goodreads where you could win a signed copy of The Time Inbetween!

And the giveaway is open internationally!

Enter now!

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/137364-the-time-in-between-a-memoir-of-hunger-and-hope

Blog Tour

Why not follow the rest of this brillaint blog tour or catch up on posts!

Have you read The Time Inbetween?  Did you enjoy it?  Are you taking part in mental health awareness week?  I would love to hear from you!  Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of this post or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy !