14.9% of men and 22% of women will face some kind of mental disorder in the next year. According to WHO statistics, out of one hundred people, seven have depression, three have bipolar disorder, one is a sociopath and one has a high chance of becoming schizophrenic. Any, absolutely any person can suddenly develop a serious—or not so serious—mental disorder. Sounds like a catastrophe? Not at all, if you have at least basic knowledge about how the mind works and modern treatment methods. How do you understand what’s happening to you and explain it to your relatives? How do you learn to distinguish objective reality from strange products of your own consciousness? And how do you tell who is healthy and who isn’t when the concept of “normal” is not as clear-cut as we’d like?
Darya Varlamova and Anton Zayniev know the topic firsthand. Both faced clinical depression—its rejection by those around them and a lack of adequate information about psychiatry. Then they dug through a heap of scientific publications, talked with specialists, and broke down not only depression but also other common conditions: bipolar, antisocial, anxiety, and borderline disorders, ADHD, Asperger’s syndrome, and schizophrenia. The result was a unique book for Russia that will help you not go mad after discovering a mental disorder in yourself or loved ones.