Mental health is under the spotlight more than ever in the world of COVID, but what about the many people who have suffered for years from the effects of mental health on their physical well-being, remaining undiagnosed and told to get over it or get on with life.
How many have given in to despair, ill health and social isolation because they did not fit into the norm of society, a society that has become very good at rejecting anyone who does not appear to fit in.
Lisa Parkinson Roberts was one such person, eventually being diagnosed as bipolar at the age of fifteen years. Being diagnosed and being helped were vastly different. It was not until she was considerably older, had suffered terribly with mental distress in many forms, that she began to see there was a correlation between the food she was eating and her episodes of serious ill health.
She poses the very real question, what would happen if mental health issues were treated and considered as illness, just like every other form of illness, not set aside as something too hard to handle, requiring drug therapy or specialist intervention?
The answer is relatively simple in that much of the shame and stigma of having mental health issues would not be evident. People suffering would be better able to heal and maintain a good quality of life. Going on to study the effect of food on mental health issues, she achieved a doctorate in nutrition science, not too shabby for a lady who, at one stage in her life, truly thought she was mad!
Her evidence-based research has transformed her life, and it is this journey she offers in A Well Mind as she looks at nutrition, gut health, a hot topic in the world of medical science, sleep, exercise and much more, to understand the effects the modern world has on mental health.
Change, especially with mental ill health, as she points out, does not happen overnight; it takes many months and sometimes many years, but it is possible when we recognise that what we eat, how we live our lives and being able to speak with Doctors to discuss alternatives to drug therapy, makes a positive difference to people who suffer mental illness.
Perhaps there is still a long way to go, but in the past twenty years, a considerable distance has been travelled with medical breakthroughs, a better understanding of depression, fatigue, psychosis, anxiety and what is referred to as mind health.
A Well Mind is far more than a self-help book; it is a pathway through what can be and often is a nightmare of health wellness to a place where simple alternatives will and can make a very big difference to overall health and well-being.
Author Lisa Parkinson Roberts (PhD)
Publisher Exisle Publishing
ISBN 9781925820782
Distributor Exisle Publishing
Released May 2021
Review By Janet Mawdesley
