Just finished reading this book, it was a really interesting read - I work in NHS mental health services myself, and Dr Benji has done a great job at capturing the ups and downs of working in psychiatry. As far as medical memoirs go, this one genuinely captures the experience of working as a mental health professional in a system that is far from perfect, and the internal struggle that comes with that. There was a good balance of humour with some of the heavier topics that were covered in the book. I also really appreciated the interweaving of Dr Benji's own journey of undertaking therapy throughout the book. Would recommend this book to anyone looking for an honest, yet humorous account of working in an often overlooked sector of the NHS.

Firstly, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an ebookversion of this book.

I have always had a fascination in the human mind. I suffer with my own mental health issues and have been on the receiving end of people's ignorance due to the stigma surrounding mental illness.

When I saw this book I knew I it was something I would love to read.

Dr Benji Waterhouse approached this taboo subject brilliantly, I loved the way he used dark comedy and humour to keep it light hearted.

I really enjoyed reading about his time as a trainee psychiatrist within the NHS. Getting to know his patients and learning about his own struggles with his mental health.

I loved the additional foot notes which were great at giving more information about certain points in the book. He didn't use a lot of medical jargon which made it a really easy read.

This was my first medical memoir and I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you Dr Benji Waterhouse for sharing your journey with us. It will definitely be a book that I will thi k about often.

Following Benji as he starts his training rotations for physciatrity. Ward, acute and community settings are all unique but under the umbrella of mental health.
Also unraveling Benji's own family dynamics and history.
You can see a broken limb by the cast to help it heal but you can't see an ill brain.
Interesting and informative

A memoir by NHS psychiatrist Dr Benji Waterhouse provides a fly-on-the-wall account of how he chose to become a psychiatrist and gives an insight into how those with mental health issues are dealt with by the NHS today.

At times this is amusing (sometimes laugh-out-loud funny) but often it's also really quite sad/depressing. It's clear that mental health services within the NHS are particularly underfunded and that the situation is further complicated by the fact that mental health conditions are far from straightforward to treat - and can also be far from straightforward to diagnose. I did finish it wondering why anyone would choose to be a psychiatrist - although the ending of the book is actually positive and uplifting, but still - there's a lot of human unhappiness in these pages.

Dr Waterhouse comes across well - although he's discouraged by one of his early mentors from becoming too involved with patients, and quickly learns that sometimes you just need to discharge them as quickly as possible to make way for someone who is even more unwell, it's clear that he really does care about the people he sees. Also, his own family issues (with his parents) and his own battle with depression, make him very 'real'.

Despite the sometimes grim nature of the topics covered, this is well worth reading and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in how the mind works, the NHS and psychiatry in general. It's a quick read, too.

You Don't have to be Mad to work here by Benji Waterhouse is a fantastic book. I loved it.

Benji is a Psychiatrist in the NHS and this is his story of working over the last couple of years, including during the covid pandemic. The tales of work are interspersed with his own life events and looking back over his life before becoming a Doctor.

Its well written with lots of humour to lift you from some of the devastating cases that he sees. Definitely makes you look at mental health care in the NHS in a different way.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the ARC Copy of the book. This review is my own opinion.

Will post review on Amazon once released.

“You don’t have to be mad to work here” is a refreshingly well-written memoir, slash non-fiction, medical book by Dr Benji Waterhouse about NHS mental health services.

The book appealed to me as I have first-hand experiences with the NHS mental health service, in fact, there is a recurring patient within the book with the same (perhaps erroneously, for me) diagnosis, and it was nice to see a doctor not stigmatise it further. Waterhouse presents the patients carefully, with thought and spattered with humour, with extremely dark moments.
 
Moments in the book made me laugh; others made me despair about the direction of the NHS. I give credit to Dr Waterhouse for at moments commenting about how the lack of resources in the NHS (time, money, staff, beds, etc.) resulted in attempts to quick-discharge patients and speed-running assessing patients in A&E with backlogs. A lot of doctors, I’m sure would shy away from making such comments about themselves and their shifting attitudes in their work - losing compassion overtime.
 
This is a book about what it is like to work in psychiatry, but also about his own life—his parents, relationships, his brothers, and his own mental health struggles—including his own depression and increasing hopelessness. This book documents, true moments of personal despair and triumph. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about the NHS and the state it is in, people who enjoy doctors memoirs— it particularly reminded me of Dr. Richard Shepherd's ( a forensic pathologist) books, as the book has some hard hitting personal elements intertwined with patients stories.

Will definitely recommend to customers who are fans of the above, or looking for a different type of book!


Very good, 5/ 5. Thank you netgalley and the publishers for an ARC, in exchange for an honest review

Having worked in the mental health system I was really interested to read Benji Waterhouses's memoirs centring around his training in psychiatry. It reminded me a little of Dr Adam Kay's books but Benji's honesty, openness and true commitment to his clients shone through and gave this book a warmer feel in my opinion.
The personal and professional challenges Benji faced both on and off the wards were dealt with with humour and sensitivity and served to highlight the flaws in a very inadequately resourced mental health system. There were moments of sadness alongside glimmers of hope but I was left with an overwhelming sense of the need for extensive change within NHS mental health services for the sake of both patients and staff.
This could have been a doom and gloom book but Benji's wit prevented this from being the case and there were plenty of laugh out loud moments. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
I am grateful to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book.

I loved this book. It was insightful, illuminating, funny and sad all at once. It's such a shame that mental health care is not given the funds it deserves by the NHS.

An excellent and well-written book. I couldn't put it down. It is a sad indictment of the woeful level of NHS mental health provision in this country, which has absolutely nothing to do with the hard-working staff who struggle every day to try and help their patients. It is frankly heart-breaking to see how a whole sector of society is deemed unimportant by the people who control the money. This book was a real eye-opener for me, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who cares about mental health.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The use of comedy, particularly black humour, suits the discussion of mental illness. As someone who's had mental illness on and off, sometimes you need to make fun of it to not allow it to be in charge.
An interesting and often poignant insight into mental health services and the effect it can have on those at the frontline.
I admire the writer's honesty in reflecting upon his own mental health and the impact of the patenting he received.
Lots of interesting cases and their outcomes. It leaves me more frustrated though about how low the government place mental health services in their funding and agendas.

Loved this book. Although if I’m ever having a mental health crisis, please remind me not to do it on the NHS. Cleverly-written, this book takes you through the mental healthcare system, the people who keep it afloat and those who miraculously make it in - and hopefully - out the other side. Laugh out loud portrayal of a web of people and places both in and outside the system where eventually compassion and love will find its way to the fore.

You Don't Have to Be Mad to Work Here caught my attention due to my interest in similar themed books, and this one did not disappoint. It's an engaging and thought-provoking read! The author intricately delves into encounters with patients and the challenges of the profession, while also candidly sharing his personal journey of facing inner struggles through therapy, which resonated with me. The book offers a stark and sobering glimpse into the intense pressures within NHS psychiatry. I found it enjoyable and would strongly recommend it to others.

Although the market has been a bit saturated with books written by doctors with anecdotes about their patients, I thought this might be a bit different as it focuses on psychiatry. Although patient cases are mentioned it is largely about the doctor, Benji, and how his work affects him. I thought this was a really interesting read and good perspective.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-ARC. This is a really insightful account of life as a NHS psychiatrist, it explained a lot about how the system works and behind the scenes of a sometimes impenetrable profession. Benji recounted his stories with gentleness and a sense of hope.

Having worked in the NHS I am drawn to medical memoirs and this one is brilliant. Open, honest and eminently readable, we follow Dr Waterhouse into his chosen speciality as a Psychiatrist through case histories and his own doubts about his chosen career. He comes from a dysfunctional but loving family which he explores through his own therapy.
Underpinning it all is the state of Mental Health services; underfunded, lack of beds, lack of staff and the danger inherent in dealing with the odd dangerous patient. It’s no wonder doctors burn out.
Nevertheless there is a lot of humour in the book, some of it laugh out loud but never demeaning. Lots of footnotes also which add to the clarity. A stellar read which I really enjoyed.

SUCH an entertaining yet eye-opening read! It is a memoir of Dr Benji Waterhouse’s first forays into working as a NHS psychiatrist, through various inpatient and community placements. Alongside describing the patients he meets and the profession struggles he faces, he also describes confronting his personal demons through therapy. It sounds like a tough read, and while it is in places (it forces the reader to face the plight of NHS services), that bleakness is tempered by the humour infused in the descriptions. In places, this book is laugh-out-loud funny, and I say this as someone who is currently a patient in NHS mental health services. It is funny but in no way degrading of individuals and their illnesses.

Five stars from me!

Thank you so much to the publisher for giving me free access to this ARC in return for a fair review.

Wry memoirs about mental illness, whether by patients or those who care for them, are my comfort read (let's not delve too deeply into what this says about me). This is one of the best I have read, the perfect blend of vulnerability and gallows humour. I loved the passages about family and relationships as much as the insights into the workings (or not) of the NHS. Comparisons to Adam Kay are inevitable - there are as many laughs on these pages, but there's a warmth and humility, and a respect and compassion for the patients, that sets Waterhouse apart.

I thought this was an interesting book based on a psychiatrist’s period of training. It isn’t overloaded with medical jargon ( what is there is explained very well), horror stories or sadness. It is told with humour and lots of footnotes. Benji is a likeable soul, he’s empathetic to his patients. He starts out with some cliched ideas of what psychiatry can do and ends up with what the NHS can achieve. I did read the book in one day so it definitely kept my interest. If you would like some insight into modern day treatments of mental illness, there is mention of it but he doesn’t dwell on it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a prepublication ebook in return for an honest review.

Really interesting book about life on our front line dealing with some very disturbed patients. Loved the story’s of different patients and the reality of the day to day life working in this area of specialism.

Dr. Benji Waterhouse decides to specialise in psychiatry, a section of health that is not exactly the easiest to diagnose. He is constantly wondering whether he has made the right call in relation to his patients. Will they leave and get the help they need in the community or will that be the last he sees of them?

Besides that, once a week he sees his own therapist, yet when he sees a GP for his own depression he changes his profession due to the stigma associated with mental health.

In this book we meet Dr. Waterhouse’s parents and three brothers. We learn the reason why he had problems in long term relationships and best of all we meet some of his patients.

Each chapter is quite short and yet is full of information as he puts in lots of footnotes with explanations. We see him in psych wards where the bed situation is horrifying inadequate. We meet his patients in the community and learn the difficulties in getting a patient sectioned, a nightmare situation when he sees a general email saying a patient has murdered his mother.

We learn how he has his own aversion therapy from one of his patients. The doctor is terrified of dogs and Tariq takes his dog everywhere.

This is an excellent look into the world of modern psychiatry with lack of NHS funding, no staff and long shifts.

I do hope that Dr. Waterhouse writes a sequel to this. It finishes at the end of the Christmas lockdown where he is now a senior psychiatrist, hoping to one day become a consultant.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book. The review for this book is my own.