First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A new story about anxiety

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If you told me it was in fact a compilation of a whole lot of her blog posts (which I know it is not) I would not be at all surprised.

First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through

Despite being full of enough disclaimers and references to cover everyone involved legally, I think this is still a pretty risky read. Wilson’s premise of “my many significant mental health diagnoses all just boil down to anxiety!”, never really defining what “anxiety” is, claiming that maladaptive coping strategies are actually okay (my bulimia helps me manage my anxiety!) and that people are over medicated and should not take medication (except for when they need to, but then stop, and then start again when inevitably have a mental health flare up) is convoluted and misguided at best, and damaging at worst. In first, we make the beast beautiful, Sarah directs her intense focus and fierce investigatory skills onto this lifetime companion of hers, looking at the triggers and treatments, the fashions and fads. She reads widely and interviews fellow sufferers, mental health experts, philosophers, and even the Dalai Lama, processing all she learns through the prism her own experiences.I found myself getting frustrated hearing stories about how much more anxious Wilson has been her whole life than I have. Maybe it’s my own anxiety but I kept feeling like this was a weird game of Wilson trying to one-up me. I had a difficult time listening to her stories about isolated retreats to various countries to find inner peace and working with all these different gurus and life coaches. Her advice section towards the end was unrealistic as she told the reader to “take a week off work and just sit in a room thinking about how you’re feeling” or “move to somewhere calm like Hawaii”. Sure, I have tons of money to just not go to work for a week or even better, move to the most expensive state in the country just to slow down my anxiety (unless you’re constantly worrying about how you can’t afford to live there). Her most common piece of advice to “give up eating sugar” was the most frustrating because that’s what she has built her career on. It just felt like a ploy to sell even more of her sugarless cookbooks. The bit about going to Thai massage place over the luxurious day spa as it was more 'authentic' to listen to junkies fighting outside. Cringe. Other than the ethical problems above I enjoyed some of the reading. She mentions some techniques and ways of thinking that are really helpful. Again, a resource list would have been wonderful for people who want to know more about it. What I didn't enjoy was her writing style and inserting random stories about herself or 'some friend' who did this or that. It felt disjointed and again, more memoir-like than really wanting to assist people with their anxiety or telling 'a new story'. For me it was frustrating to read and took away from the points she did make very well. Near the beginning of the book, Wilson states that this isn’t a self-help book, it’s more an account of her experiences with anxiety. But I would disagree. I found so many tips in here and just being able to relate and agree with her about so many things provided some help in itself. In this book, Sarah suggests that perhaps anxiety is not something to be gotten rid of or destroyed, but rather something which acts as a personal compass or traffic-light system warning us when we’re acting in a way unaligned with our values. She suggests that if we pay attention and listen to its pleas, our anxiety may be the very thing which brings us closer to finding meaning and fulfilment and in our lives.

First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety

Sarah pulls at the thread of accepted definitions of anxiety, and unravels the notion that it is a difficult, dangerous disease that must be medicated into submission. Ultimately, she re-frames anxiety as a spiritual quest rather than a burdensome affliction, a state of yearning that will lead us closer to what really matters. Sarah Wilson: ‘Anxiety is a very lonely condition but I feel like there’s a yearning out there to connect over it.’ Photograph: Pan Macmillan I liked Wilson's definition of anxiety: she sees it as a separation of self from something larger and more meaningful. The anxiety makes us reach for this something, but we don't know what we're reaching for and it hurts. There was also a lot of things I struggled with in terms of the structuring of the book itself. Don't get me wrong I loved that this listed things in numbers, counting things is such an anxious perk of mine and the ironic comments on the side or generic side notes were really great. But there were a reasonable number of grammatical discrepancies, changes in tense.In her new book, she directs her intense focus and fierce investigatory skills onto this lifetime companion of hers, looking at the triggers and treatments, the fashions and fads. She reads widely and interviews fellow sufferers, mental health experts, philosophers, and even the Dalai Lama, processing all she learns through the prism her own experiences. This book is a combination of self-help and memoir as TV personality and author, Sarah Wilson relives her own struggles with anxiety. Unfortunately, whilst we share a first name, Sarah and I do not share a large portion of our anxiety and how we manage it.

First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through

The idea for a book about anxiety came to Wilson a couple of years ago when she was on a panel at the Melbourne writers’ festival: “I was talking about sugar but all the questions were about anxiety. People are desperate to have a deep and proper and real conversation about anxiety.” Practical and poetic, wise and funny, this is a small book with a big heart. It will encourage the myriad sufferers of the world’s most common mental illness to feel not just better about their condition, but delighted by the possibilities it offers for a richer, fuller life. In first, we make the beast beautiful, Sarah directs her intense focus and fierce investigatory skills onto this lifetime companion of hers, looking at the triggers and treatments, the fashions and fads. She reads widely and interviews fellow sufferers, mental health experts, philosophers, and the Dalai Lama, processing all she learns through the prism of her own experiences.There were definitely little moments of inspiration for me in this book, but the majority of the book didn’t feel relatable. The format of the book was confusing and felt extremely scattered most of the time. This book isn't for everybody, but it was 100% for me. It seems people didn't like the meandering structure or the conversational style, which is a-ok, obviously. You do you. But I wanted to write a review because I found the book SO beautiful and helpful, and I was sceptical before buying it, so I wanted to speak directly to my fellow sceptics. This was free through my library and listened by Bolinda Borrow Box, my libraries recommended listening app.

first, we make the beast beautiful - Pan Macmillan AU first, we make the beast beautiful - Pan Macmillan AU

I was very honest about detailing self-harm,” Wilson says. “Nobody talks about the really ugly stuff.” A witty, well-researched, and often insightful book about negotiating a new relationship to anxiety.” One thing I generally like about this genre is hearing new perspectives and understanding that all of our journeys are the same, but very different. I like to listen and understand the different paths we all take with our mental health and the struggles we go through because it helps us feel less alone in what we are feeling, as well as offer new meaning to those emotions. For Wilson’s story though, it felt kinda unrelateable. I highly recommend you listen to the audiobook of this, or book for that matter, its extremely interesting, facinating, entertaining and it kept me captivated for hours. Read by the author herself. Duration time 9 hrs 7 mins. First, we make the beast beautifulwas published on February 28th, 2017 (Pan Macmillan Australia) and April 24, 2018 (US, Harper Collins) and is now published worldwide, in South Korean, Lithuanian and French. Where to buy the book

This journey is what I do now. I bump along, in fits and starts, on a perpetual path to finding better ways for me and my mate, Anxiety, to get around. It's everything I do. For those of you who follow the First Steps ED blog, you might already know my resolution was to read more books (I kept it simple this year), and so far, so good! Whilst I’m not reviewing every book I’m reading because not all would be MH-relevant, it is probably quite fair to say I’m selfishly using this space for accountability, and allowing myself to reflect on the books I think have an impact. And, of course, if it helps you with your own Spring reading list then great!