COVID-19/Mental Health Crises

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me a copy of this timely publication Covid19-Mental Health Crises.

Now more than ever people are suffering with loneliness, anxiety disorders, depression feelings of helplessness and thoughts of will things ever get better.

This jewel of a book helped me to navigate though these difficult times and not just related to the pandemic but also times of grief and loss. Definitely timely reading material and I will be coming back to this book time and again I’m sure.

Anyone slightly knowledgeable in natural, homeopathic “medicine” will be given prescriptions which feel familiar to what one has read in other books, common to what has been written before, and won’t appear terribly groundbreaking or paradigm shifting. Throughout this book, a few mental disorders are given particular attention: PTSD, depression, substance-use disorders, and bipolar disorder. Recommendations given consist of supplementation, sleep hygiene, exercise, researching trusted sources for different homeopathic treatments, a healthful diet, spirituality, mindfulness practices, avoidance of alcohol,

Each chapter is quite short, can be read in just a few minutes, and consist largely of a single brief story to begin each chapter, bullet points of recommendations, and is best suited for all types of readers as this book is written in a stylistic fashion which is concise, free of any technical verbiage, practical in its recommendations, and easily digestible.

What is perhaps this books greatest strength is also its weakness: too concise for the topic at-hand. However, in the all too often traumatic aftermath which the pandemic has wrought upon the entire world, these are the very prescriptions which may help those whose mental health and well-being have been directly impacted by taking ownership over their mental health.

*The ebook was provided free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

I found this really enlightening and it really helped me suffering from long covid for the last 14 months. I just didn't feel so alone.

My teenage son who is also suffering from long covid but his symptoms are more mental health related so this was really useful
I was given a copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

This book by distinguished psychiatrist Ronald Parks will help anyone struggling through this crisis and the almost more annoying restrictions on our daily lives with chapters on all aspects of mental health problems associated with it. The author includes special chapters on bi-polar disorder and other specific areas of mental health as well. He includes lots of tips to assist people to stay healthy and fit during the pandemic, as well as suggesting ways to destress, relax and even use this as a time to become more spiritual. I will be looking at this book a lot.

I also found the author's own story extremely interesting, as well.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

As a counselling psychotherapist I have encountered a number of clients who have faced extremely distressing events caused by Covid-19. Whether that has been ICU treatment themselves, long Covid, the death of a loved one, to isolation, anxiety about education, or developing health-phobia behaviours; what they all have had in common has been Covid-19. The impact of the pandemic is far-reaching and will be long-term, so it is good that mental health literature is being developed that begins to address some of the issues experienced. This book summarises much of this in short and concise chapters that can be quickly read, which is a great positive. However, the concise nature itself brings with it some difficulties when Covid is such a large subject area, and as such broad brushstrokes are made which don’t necessarily reflect the depth required.

I would like to give a special thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book for reviewing. COVID-19-Mental Health Crisis provides readers with information related to various aspects of coping. The book has four main sections: Holistic Coping, Coping with Mental Health Issues, Coping with Traumatic Events, and Beyond Coping. Some of the information provided is what I would call common knowledge. For example, some signs of anxiety are well known; however, others may not be. Though some readers will be knowledgeable concerning some of the book’s content, it is helpful to have the information all in one location, and its organization allows for readers to quickly located needed information. The book includes short narratives, usually located to the beginning of the sections. These narratives may be helpful for readers by allowing them to grasp a more concrete example or image; however, these parts did not engage me. I found it particularly annoying that at the end of the italicized story there was a disclaimer stating that the story did “not represent an actual person or any prior patients.” Would it make a difference for me if these stories had been based on real people? I don’t know. Maybe. In summary, the information is pertinent for readers in 2021 and the organization allows for reader’s to easily access needed information.