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Searching for Normal: A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress and Neurodiversity
A Sunday Times Best Book of 2025
'A brilliant book. I said “Hurrah!� and “Yes!� to every point Sami Timimi makes. A welcome antidote to the dangerous cult of overdiagnosis and the commodification of normal distress' PHILIPPA PERRY
'[A] terrific, thought-provoking book' JOHANN HARI
How can we reconsider the way in which we think about, treat and care for those in distress?
More and more people are being diagnosed with ADHD and autism.
More and more people are being diagnosed with mental disorders.
Young people are being medicalised for behaviours that might be explained as entirely normal in other parts of the world.
Distress has been commodified over many decades by pharmaceutical companies, the media and the psychiatric establishment.
So how can we know when distress is normal and when it is something that needs to be treated?
In Searching for Normal, Sami Timimi explores the political and cultural context of these phenomena and presents a deeply humane approach that looks at the person as a whole � their family context, their culture, their personal resilience � and advocates for a reframing of how we think about and treat distress.
'A brilliant book. I said “Hurrah!� and “Yes!� to every point Sami Timimi makes. A welcome antidote to the dangerous cult of overdiagnosis and the commodification of normal distress' PHILIPPA PERRY
'[A] terrific, thought-provoking book' JOHANN HARI
How can we reconsider the way in which we think about, treat and care for those in distress?
More and more people are being diagnosed with ADHD and autism.
More and more people are being diagnosed with mental disorders.
Young people are being medicalised for behaviours that might be explained as entirely normal in other parts of the world.
Distress has been commodified over many decades by pharmaceutical companies, the media and the psychiatric establishment.
So how can we know when distress is normal and when it is something that needs to be treated?
In Searching for Normal, Sami Timimi explores the political and cultural context of these phenomena and presents a deeply humane approach that looks at the person as a whole � their family context, their culture, their personal resilience � and advocates for a reframing of how we think about and treat distress.
- GenresSelf Help
344 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 20, 2025
21 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
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March 28, 2025
This is such an excellent book - with so many examples drawn from the author’s many years of practice and experience which bring his sage advice to life. The present approach which the various professions, institutions and the wider culture have adopted is clearly exacerbating mental health problems widely, and not helping families - the crucible of mentally healthy humans - through difficult issues which can be paralysing, and impact people adversely their whole life. I’ve found it brilliant in improving how I approach dealing with my children, and will continue to turn to Dr Timimi as they continue to grow in a world which is more and more difficult for children to thrive in. It is by far the very best I have come across, reading very many books about it. On the one hand had he offers no easy solution, and indeed I will moist certainly resist the solutions proffered by well-meaning professionals (diagnosis and medication) in future. When Dr Tamimi lays out the actual scientific evidence for it, I cannot consider that giving ADHD child amphetamines is an effective solution to behavioural and concentration problems. I consider it completely unethical too, although Dr Timimi is too polite to put it quite this strongly. But on the other hand he shows us the way, tough though it is, to vastly improve the context for children and teenagers whose personalities and abilities deviate from more ‘normal�, easier to handle specimens of humanity to thrive and live the best lives they can - relatively immunised against the vicissitudes of a UK (indeed more widely Western) society undergoing various crises - not least crises of mental health and adopting healthily to new, ubiquitous technologies etc.
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