A new book by practicing psychologist Anastasia Dolganova “Everyday Mental Disorders. Self-diagnosis and self-help. Why will it be of interest to all of us? And what are the practical benefits?
Writing in an accessible and understandable way about the complex is not possible for every specialist and experienced professional. That is why the new book by practicing psychologist Anastasia Dolganova promises to become a bestseller, like her first work, The World of Narcissistic Victim. Relationships in the context of modern neurosis.
“Everyday mental disorders. Self-diagnosis and self-help” is a book about the psyche and its diseases, a guide that anyone could use.
Knowledge about the mechanisms of our psyche, about its features and possible violations helps us to understand ourselves, take care of ourselves and loved ones and more effectively solve life’s tasks – both personal and work. Ultimately, thanks to psychological literacy, we become more successful and happier – in the format in which we need it.
What problems can be found in the book?
Its pages list “everyday mental difficulties that any person can face, not going beyond the neurotic and borderline level of functioning, not requiring hospitalization, having a good prognosis for psychotherapeutic intervention and self-help.”
Anastasia Dolganova replaces this ponderous formulation with the more common expression “everyday mental disorders.”
The book describes:
- depression;
- anxiety disorders;
- mental trauma;
- personality disorders;
- other neurotic symptoms.
Theoretical explanations are accompanied by numerous examples from psychological practice.
Why do we need to know this?
“An ideally healthy psyche does not exist, just as there is no ideally healthy body,” writes Anastasia. “Even if we are not physically ill, the work of our body can be disrupted by falls, during seasonal illnesses, with poor nutrition and care.
In the same way, the psyche changes its work in a state of acute or chronic stress, in the absence of self-care, or simply based on the characteristics of the context in which we must live.
At the same time, mankind has learned to take care of the bodies. Most of us do not have physical difficulties created by lifestyle or inadequate care. Civilization no longer wraps up the legs of its children so that the feet are smaller, does not treat venereal diseases with sulfur, and does not believe that if a person breaks his leg, then he is “to blame, and that he is different here, he will heal, pull yourself together and go to work” .
We have clear protocols on what to do when sick
There is science. There are experts. There is a huge amount of consistent and high-quality information, thanks to which we are quite successful in coping with the difficulties that our body sometimes experiences.
With mental difficulties, everything is different. We grow up in a traumatic environment in which the very way we approach life and parenting creates trauma and disruption, and most of the adults we meet are poking, kicking, or biting.
Not always from evil: mental trauma, as well as physical pain, can be inflicted through negligence – but always from ignorance. And we continue to live with a distorted, unhealed psyche, which now cannot fully cope with the tasks of reality that await us.
I call this everyday mental disorders: conditions in which an initially quite adequate psyche cannot cope – and phenomena arise in it that can bring a lot of suffering to a person.
Depression, for example, or an eating disorder, or addiction. All these difficulties have a deep systemic logic, are understandable, and can be prevented and treated. It’s just that very few people know exactly how it’s done.
We treat our mental disorders with shame and misunderstanding
This greatly prevents us from taking care of ourselves: for example, if a person has an ulcer, then he knows very well what food he should avoid, but if a person has an anxiety disorder, then he has no idea what to do with it now. This applies not only to treatment, but also to choosing a lifestyle that suits him for the time that is needed for treatment.
Moreover, the attitudes and rules that we follow can greatly worsen an already bad state. For example, the worst advice for a depressed person is to suppress tears and pull himself together, for an anxious person to try to replace anxious feelings with positive thoughts, for a person with schizotypal symptoms to seek support from their family. Obvious answers can be devastating.
When it comes to everyday mental disorders, we are barbarians at best and sadists at worst. Nobody runs marathons with a broken leg. Nobody goes to work with a bad flu. We don’t skip medication, don’t go home with a heart attack (most often), and we know we need to drink more water.
In the realm of the psyche, we don’t do the same things simply because we don’t know that something is wrong with us.
Understanding one’s own mental status for a modern Russian-speaking person remains not an everyday necessity, but a whim. We would rather ignore mental symptoms than take care of ourselves.”
The author managed to make immersion in the world of mental characteristics and disorders become an exciting read. This is facilitated by deep knowledge of the topic, extensive practical experience, respect and concern for the reader.
About the Developer
Anastasia Dolganova – psychologist, author of the books “The World of Narcissistic Victim. Relationships in the Context of Modern Neurosis” and “Everyday Mental Disorders. Self-diagnosis and self-help” (Ves, 2021). Read more on her .