Making Sense of Mental Health: A Practical Approach through Lived Experience

Mental health difficulties bring us face to face with our vulnerability as human beings, and after two years of struggling with Covid-19 concerns about mental health worldwide have never been higher.

What is often missing from these discussions is the most valuable resource of all – the personal accounts of those with lived experience of mental health difficulties. Making Sense of Mental Health is centered on hours of in-depth interviews with adults coping with mental health issues. The author follows their journeys from the origin of their distress to their lowest moments to eventual recovery and a sense of moving on. These lived experiences show how in times of crisis people can move forward amidst the chaos, vulnerability and uncertainty of mental health problems.

There are no quick fixes or miracle cures to serious mental health issues. This book shows that ‘what works’ is whatever helps an individual make sense of what is happening to them. Mental health difficulties can best be treated by listening carefully to the stories of those who have lived through them, and then as a society finding a way to ascribe meaning to the complex reality of mental health.

Dr Emma Farrell is a Senior Post-Doctoral Research Fellow and Chartered Psychologist at University College Dublin. A founding member of Headstrong (now Jigsaw) The National Centre for Youth Mental Health, she was also a member of the National Taskforce for Youth Mental Health and was the recipient of Gaisce, The President’s Award Gold Medal. She has written widely for The Irish Times and other print media.