You don’t need to be mad to work here by Benji Waterman
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Benji Waterman writes his first novel from the point of a doctor training specialising in psychiatry. Introducing various patients he treats in different medical settings (inpatient and outpatient settings), one gets introduced to his patients and the challenges they face. Knowing that mental health doesn’t discriminate, Benji Waterman includes the raw and debilitating pain experienced by not only the patients, but also its extended family members and the mental health team itself. With the NHS facing little funding and limited access to care, it’s sad yet insightful to read more about what difficulties professionals deal with to support patients in a suitable setting (e.g. limited resources, ‘labelling or not labelling’ an individual with a diagnosis). Lastly, I thought it was great and honest to read about the authors own struggles with his mental health. Whilst I think there’s a time and place for being serious and professionalism, this book provided a great mix of humour and hard facts.

If you love Adam Kay’s books - you’ll love this one more!

Told with the perfect mix of compassion, honesty and humour, it’s a genuine insight into the state of the UK’s NHS mental health system. I echo the author’s disillusionment with a psychiatry system that proposes to support and improve mental health difficulties but the reality is far from this due to lack of appropriate (& unbiased) funding!

He touches on the implicit realities of fabricated research designed to improve the profits of pharmaceutical companies, whilst a failing system cannot provide the “root-cause” care that patients so desperately need.

An excellent read and one I’ll recommend to my colleagues in the MH sector!

NHS psychiatrist Dr Benji Waterhouse provides a deep insight into one of medicines misunderstood departments, the psychiatric ward – and it’s one of the best memoirs I have read in a while.B e prepared to laugh out loud and also cry – it’s an emotional rollercoaster!

Benji writes about his experiences as a placement student Dr in various psychiatric wards and shares sad, honest, raw and very funny stories of his patients but also provides insight into his sometimes dysfunctional family and family history and his experiences with his own mental health and personal therapy.

This book really highlighted how difficult NHS psychiatric wards are to work in, understaffed, overworked, no beds for critical patients and being taught to be very clinical with patients who may just need understanding and compassion, I can see why Benji was at times very stressed, questioning his abilities and the seemingly backwards systems.

I felt this memoir was written with such honesty, compassion, warmth and humility which also represents how Benji was with all his patients. The book focuses on the complexities of very difficult mental health in an unfortunately broken system. It also shows how this part of medicine needs support, understanding, care, funding and to be honest more Drs like Benji.

I think this is a really important book to read, it’s given me a deep appreciation for everyone who supports and helps others mental health with compassion and humanity.

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You Don't Have to Be Mad to Work Here - Benji Waterhouse

I absolutely adored this book, it very much gave me This is going to hurt vibes but from a psychiatry stand point.
The book follows Benji from just qualifiying until he is working within the COVID pandemic. During the years we spend with Benji he is working on crisis ward, in the community, decides he needs a break and gets back to work to help during the pandemic. We hear about his patients, his own therapy and why he decided to go down the psychiatry route.

I felt that the book really showed a sector of health care that lots of people don't really understand unless they have been part of it, its almost the hidden side just as mental health is more hidden. I liked that it went from some really really complex cases to the persons everyday struggle. As Benji said during the book a lot of the time as doctor you don't get to continue to be up to date with your patients lives, which can weigh you down. This very much came across in the book when we learn something about the patients and then never found out if Benji had been able to help them. I did like the one patient who we got to see multiple times, once in a very bad place and then seeing him better at the end.

I highly recommend this book, it was sad but also hilarious in parts. It also really shows the life of psychiatry and what goes on behind the closed doors.

This was an interesting read of the difficulties of working in psychiatry in the UK in recent years. Benji was a relatable lead of the memoir, with a great level of humanity and kindness. The patients were all interesting and told a different element of the struggles with the system & resources but never the emotional strain and care Benji shows.

You Don't Have to be Mad... is a candid, bittersweet memoir about a young doctor specialising in psychiatry. In the vein of This is Going to Hurt, Waterhouse uses humour as a counterpoint to the upsetting, often overwhelming everyday reality of working for the NHS. He also weaves his own family's story in with those of his patients and fellow doctors, building a wide-reaching and deeply personal picture of mental health, trauma and resilience.

It's an expose of the chronically underfunded and understaffed mental health service, and an ode to the people doing their best to survive the system, told with characteristic British humour.

Thoughts:
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This book is an amazing read and has given me a much deeper insight into the kind of professional world I hope to be joining (mental health). The first consultant hinting there must be something wrong to want to work there made me laugh as it’s something we used to joke about in my course. Benji shows us what it's like to go from a new graduate right through to his consultancy training. I appreciated that he didn’t shy away from his own experiences of burnout and mental health suffering as more books like this help to contribute to de-stigmatisation of mental ill health. I’m glad we got to get one or two pieces of some sort of closure but I understand that Benji himself didn’t get to complete the process of any of his patients being moved regularly so it makes sense we don’t always find out if his patients are still struggling or are managing better now. I also liked that this is a more recent book which also managed to tackle the impact of COVID on working in the NHS and specifically people’s mental health at the time. Especially with knowing that many self-report remote studies completed over that period showed an impact on most participants so seeing (even in one little paragraph) the impact on a few of his patients personally helped contextualize it all a little more.

Favourite Quote:
"Earlier in my training I used to worry about my patients affecting me, but but now now I realise the far bigger problem is when compassion-fatigued psychiatrists get to the point that they don't."

Don’t you just want to grab this, switch off the phone and curl up on the sofa
By far one of my favourite books I've read this year… I loved every minute

Thank you NetGalley and Random Penguin House for the chance to read and review this ARC.

A funny, sad yet brutally honest memoir of am NHS training psychiatrist. It was interesting and kept me hooked until the end.

Wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but it is funny, tragic, and uplifting. A fine book, brilliantly written

This book reminded me of those by Adam Kay! It feels wrong to say I enjoyed it because Mental health is not taken seriously enough in this country. Very funny and well written.

I read this book in three days and enjoyed all of it. I went through a lot of emotions when reading the book. The general style of writing and recalling events is humorous, however, the individual stories are quite upsetting and the state of the NHS and mental health services in particular is awful.

It was a very interesting journey through the initial career of a psychiatrist and I would recommend the book to others.

10000% recommend this. I’ve always been interested in mental health and tend to read any sort of book like this but this is so good! I really enjoyed the satire, laughing out loud and smiling at some parts - and I like that it naturally has that balance where it’s showing you a good side and a bad side to mental health and the problems people face. This read is really insightful and is definitely an eye opener

• This dude works in a psychiatric hospital so all the content warnings associated with mental illness are here. So proceed with caution. It's written with care but do still make sure you're ready to go into something like this. The author is sarcastic so that does help make it a somewhat lighter read.
• For me a memoir is a reflective account of someone's life from their earliest memories of themselves up to where they are. While this had reflection in it especially after Benji started therapy, it still isn't the perfect account for me- which is no fault of the author or the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this, the talk of the NHS and how exactly the system is broken  which made me have out loud conversations with myself because I couldn't quite believe some of the mess that went on and will continue to happen.
• The first half felt more like a a review of the challenges medical professionals face working for the NHS which is the main point of it so you will learn exactly deep the rot is.
I recommend this for someone wanting to go into psychiatry, optimistically I would say some policy makers but we all know that they sadly don't read. Anyone whose curious about medical training outside of med school and the general public. If you're even mildly curious, give it a chance.

OMG I really recommend this book it is so funny and if you have ever suffered from depression, anxiety or personality disorder you will probably laugh the loudest, as you relate to patients and hear it from a Drs view point. My husband read this first and kept annoyingly laughing out loud and me saying what! And then him saying.. I can't tell you just read it, I dare anyone to not laugh out loud.. enjoy the read!

What an insight!

Benji Waterhouse is funny, honest and heart-breakingly good with his account of his work.

You will root for him and his patients, not forgetting the fabulous Esther!

A tough read at times but uplifting.

This is an amusing, at times heart breaking insight into the NHS [Mental Health] teams and their patients.

It certainly shows the variety of mental health issues and the pressures the doctors are under.

I would recommend this.

Found this book funny in parts as the author decides to specialise and we hear him discuss his many patients and how mental health is still underfunded and understaffed compared to physical illness. Liked the candid humour and the book was an easy read.

I enjoyed reading this book - it was different to my usual selection. Thank you to the writer, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read it

This was a fantastic mix of humour, personal family history, patient stories and commentary on the crumbling NHS - Tariqs story pulled at my heartstrings.