Turtles All the Way Down in Around the World in 80 Books

Oct 13, 2017 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: recommend-to-friends, young-adult, kindle, pants-crappingly-awesome

This book. This book this book this book. There is so much that this book gets right.

I read this book at a time in my life where mental illness has made its presence known in my family. I've struggled with anxiety for years, and a few people close to me struggle with anxiety, depression, and OCD. Sometimes, the hardest thing about having a mental illness is knowing that the healthy people around you don't understand what you're going through. And there is so much I want to tell people about men This book. This book this book this book. There is so much that this book gets right.

I read this book at a time in my life where mental illness has made its presence known in my family. I've struggled with anxiety for years, and a few people close to me struggle with anxiety, depression, and OCD. Sometimes, the hardest thing about having a mental illness is knowing that the healthy people around you don't understand what you're going through. And there is so much I want to tell people about mental illness that this book just gets so right.

I want to tell people that mental illness IS a physical illness. Something is wrong in the brain. Something is broken, something is diseased. I can't just stop being anxious and think positively.

“Mom, tell me what to say. Seriously. Just . . . tell me what words I can say to make you calm down about it.” “I don’t want to calm down. I want you to stop being in pain.” “Well, that’s not how it works, okay?

How many of us with mental illness have heard "Just stop worrying" or "You should just pray about it" or "If you had enough faith in Jesus you wouldn't feel this way" or "What do you have to be so depressed about? Your life is great" or "When will you get better?" or some variation of those? It doesn't work that way, anymore than telling someone to just stop having cancer or a broken leg. "Why are you just throwing pills at the problem? Why don't you just go out and get some fresh air or exercise? That always works for me when I feel depressed." Some people with mental illnesses need medication the same way someone with diabetes needs insulin. Yes, some people can manage their illness with therapy and breathing the way some diabetics can manage with diet, but there should be no shame in needing a medication in either case.

I want to tell people that using words like "crazy" or "freak" (which my ex used to call me when I was having an anxious episode) is dismissive and hurtful.

The term chronic pain captures nothing of the grinding, constant, ceaseless, inescapable hurt. And the term crazy arrives at us with none of the terror and worry you live with. Nor do either of those terms connote the courage people in such pains exemplify, which is why I’d ask you to frame your mental health around a word other than crazy.

I want to tell people that a compulsion is just that - something you are compelled to do and while Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help, most of the time simply telling yourself to stop does not work. In the book, Aza compulsively presses her thumbnail into a callous on her finger, so it never really heals. My compulsion is called trichotillomania, which means I pull my hair out. Think of it this way: Have you ever had an itch from, say, a mosquito bite? And you know that scratching it will just make it worse, and it'll break the skin, and you tell yourself don't scratch, don't scratch, don't scratch but you JUST HAVE TO SCRATCH and when you do it feels sooooo goooood and the relief lasts only for a minute before it starts itching again and the whole fight with yourself starts over? That's what compulsion is like, only worse. The itch never ever ever gets better. And you scratch and you scratch and you scratch until you bleed.

I want to tell people that I can't control how I feel, and sometimes that not being in control is the thing I fear most, which means I'm just afraid of feeling afraid, and how helpless that can make me.

She clicked off her light, and the world went dark. I felt my eyes trying to adjust, but there was no light to adjust to. “Now you can’t see the walls, right? Can’t see the rats. Spin around a few times and you won’t know which way is in and which way is out. This is scary. Now imagine if we couldn’t talk, if we couldn’t hear each other’s breathing. Imagine if we had no sense of touch, so even if we were standing next to each other, we’d never know it. “Imagine you’re trying to find someone, or even you’re trying to find yourself, but you have no senses, no way to know where the walls are, which way is forward or backward, what is water and what is air. You’re senseless and shapeless—you feel like you can only describe what you are by identifying what you’re not, and you’re floating around in a body with no control. You don’t get to decide who you like or where you live or when you eat or what you fear. You’re just stuck in there, totally alone, in this darkness. That’s scary. This,” I said, and turned on the flashlight. “This is control. This is power. There may be rats and spiders and whatever the hell. But we shine the light on them, not the other way around. We know where the walls are, which way is in and which way is out. This,” I said, turning off my light again, “is what I feel like when I’m scared. This”—I turned the flashlight back on—“is a walk in the fucking park.”

If you know and care about anyone who experiences mental illness, please read this book. I hope it can give you a little insight on what it's like to live in the darkness. ...more

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Nov 20, 2018 Astrid Lim rated it really liked it

Shelves: america, contemporary, young-adult, borrowed, sicklit, popsugar-2018, mental-illness

Ha! John Green - I have mixed feelings about your books! I enjoyed Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but couldn't care less about the overhype Tha Faults in Our Stars.

Fortunately, Turtles all the Way Down is an enjoyable read. It has a perfect formula for me: family, friendship, a bit of mystery, not too much romance, and pretty relatable main character. Unlike the other Green's books, the dialogues are not that pretentious. Sure, there are some heavy discussions about life etc, but I'm pretty ok with ...more

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Jun 09, 2020 Susan rated it liked it · review of another edition

I guess I expected a bit more from this book, maybe because of all the awards and critical acclaims. The characters were great but really not much of a plot, nothing really happens. Nevertheless, it did keep my interest.

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