It's Not You, It's the World
Will be published approx. on 12. February 2026
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-83726-339-4 (ISBN)
Description
What if our mental health struggles aren't signs that we're broken, but proof that we're responding normally to a world in crisis?
Today, one in two of us will be diagnosed with a mental health condition by the age of 40. Rather than viewing this as individual failure, clinical professor and psychiatrist Joanna Cheek argues that our symptoms are often brilliant alarms - our defence systems working exactly as they should in response to threatening circumstances.
It's Not You, It's the World is the essential guide for anyone feeling depressed, anxious, enraged or overwhelmed by adapting to a chaotic world. Drawing on extensive cross-cultural research, years of clinical experience, and her own journey as a patient, Dr Cheek demonstrates how self-improvement alone neglects the source of our suffering. To truly heal, we must address the imbalances in our wider systems that keep making us all sick.
With a foreword by Gabor Mate, this survival guide offers practical mental health tools to care for both ourselves and our communities.
Today, one in two of us will be diagnosed with a mental health condition by the age of 40. Rather than viewing this as individual failure, clinical professor and psychiatrist Joanna Cheek argues that our symptoms are often brilliant alarms - our defence systems working exactly as they should in response to threatening circumstances.
It's Not You, It's the World is the essential guide for anyone feeling depressed, anxious, enraged or overwhelmed by adapting to a chaotic world. Drawing on extensive cross-cultural research, years of clinical experience, and her own journey as a patient, Dr Cheek demonstrates how self-improvement alone neglects the source of our suffering. To truly heal, we must address the imbalances in our wider systems that keep making us all sick.
With a foreword by Gabor Mate, this survival guide offers practical mental health tools to care for both ourselves and our communities.
Reviews / Votes
This book more than instructs about healing: it makes healing into a practicable aim and endeavour -- GABOR MATE A book that manages to be both deeply useful and profoundly interesting. Dr Joanna Cheek places our mental troubles in the context of the wider world, and this collective view of mental health helps us understand where our thoughts and fears stem from. A must-read for anyone interested in minds and their environment. I loved it -- MATT HAIG The real reason emotional suffering is skyrocketing isn't because we're flawed or broken - it's because we're responding to a deeply unwell world. In this brilliant, wise, and profoundly compassionate book, Dr Joanna Cheek guides us to see the wider ecology driving our distress -- TARA BRACH, author of 'Radical Acceptance' Kudos to Dr Cheek for showing us the science behind our global dysfunction, and the research-led responses needed to heal ourselves and our world . . . Her courage and wisdom shine through these pages! -- JACK KORNFIELD, author of 'A Path with Heart'More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
525 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83726-339-4 (9781837263394)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Dr Joanna Cheek is a board-certified psychiatrist and psychotherapist trained in dozens of modalities, researcher, meditation teacher, journalist, and Clinical Professor at the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Medicine. She co-created the national-award-winning Mind Space collective, offering publicly-funded mental health workshops to teach effective mental health strategies through connection and care to tens of thousands of community members and physicians who, like us all, experience the mental health symptoms that arise from living in a disordered world.