Perfectly Imperfect Stories (UK)

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Description

Meet 29 icons, from pop stars to sporting heroes, and discover how they overcame a range of mental health issues, from anorexia to depression, to live inspiring lives. At a time when kids mental health is under more pressure than ever, this book celebrates the message that it's ok not to be ok.

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 21 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781647002374
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

PERFECTLY

IMPERFECT

STORIES
Foreword from Professor Peter Fonagy, Anna Freud Centre

FOREWORD

The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families is a children s mental health charity, which has been

developing and delivering mental health care for over 60 years. For more information, please visit annafreud.org

When I was younger, I often wondered

what it would feel like to be normal .

I was pretty sure that what I was feeling

(sad, constantly worried and inadequate)

was not how other people felt.

I had always been a bit of a scaredy cat . Coming back home

after school on winter evenings, I had to take detours because

I was frightened of the dark.

When I was 15, I moved to the UK. I became a refugee and I

couldn t speak English. My new school was very different from

the one I had left behind. The other children made fun of me

and I could not understand their jokes, except that they were

on me. I started failing exams. Even when my language skills

improved, my results remained disastrously poor.

I was alone, my parents and my sister were in another country.

I was utterly desperate. Now that I am an experienced

clinician, if I were to meet my younger self I would be

extremely concerned about him.

I was lucky. A neighbour told me about a therapy place for

young people who were unhappy. I went and met a person

who made me feel so uncomfortable that I decided I would

never go back.

But my loneliness and feelings of hopelessness got worse and

in the end I contacted the clinic again. This time I met a lady.

She was kind and funny and even now as I write about her I

can feel her warmth. She was easy to talk to and she helped

me see my difficulties quite differently. What had seemed

insurmountable became a problem to solve. I soon realised

there was a good reason why I was failing exams: I was

doing almost no work, so it was not surprising that I couldn t

answer the questions! In the end I made it to a college, got

in to a University, got a decent degree, became a clinical

psychologist and even a Professor. And for the past 15 years I

have been the Director of the clinic where I was a patient so

many years before.

So what have I learned? When we feel very upset, worried,

frightened, or sad, it is not always easy to know what to do

about these feelings. That is why I think it is so helpful to talk,

to check them out with someone else s help. Being alone

makes everything worse. Of course, sometimes the people

around us do not want to help. But knowing that most people

do care and can help us to make things better is the most

important lesson I have learned.

This wonderful book is about three things. First, it shows

us that personal suffering lies behind many important

achievements. Second, it reminds us that taking oneself too

seriously may not be the most helpful thing. The graphics help

us to see the value of seeing the lighter side of ourselves. And

finally, struggling with our emotions is something that unites

us all - you, me and all the famous people in this book.

Professor Peter Fonagy

OBE FMedSci FBA FAcSS PhD DipPsy

Chief Executive, Anna Freud National Centre for Children & Families

Senior National Clinical Advisor on Children s Mental Health, NHS England
4

.

Frida Kahlo

6

.

Prince Harry

8

.

Serena Williams

10

.

Dwayne Johnson

12

.

Lady Gaga

14

.

Charles Darwin

16

.

Ruby Rose

18

.

Edvard Munch

20

.

Willow Smith

22

.

Frank Sinatra

24

.

H lo se Letissier

26

.

Winston Churchill

28

.

Kylie Minogue

30

.

Michael Phelps

32

.

Marie Curie

34

.

John Green

36

.

Emma Stone

38

.

Gisele B ndchen

40

.

Rafael Nadal

42

.

Sam Smith

44

.

Ariana Grande

46

.

Ludvig van Beethoven

48

.

Hideaki Anno

50

.

Zayn Malik

52

.

Florence Nightingale

54

.

Nadiya Hussain

56

.

Kevin Love

58

.

Abraham Lincoln

60

.

Small steps

62

.

Further information

CONTENTS
FRIDA

KAHLO

FRIDA

KAHLO

4

When Frida Kahlo felt unhappy, she

loved nothing more than to pick up

her paintbrush and create beautiful

and detailed oil paintings in all kinds

of bold colours.

Growing up in Mexico, she

didn t have an easy start to life.

When she was a young girl, she

became very ill with a disease

called polio that left her right

leg thinner than her left, and

made it difficult to walk.

She worried about what

other children would

think about her

appearance and struggled to feel happy

with how she looked.

Despite her insecurities, Frida

managed to exercise a strong sense

of individuality and unconformity

throughout her life, refusing to shave her

armpits, bushy unibrow or moustache. Instead,

she put all of her thoughts into her colourful

clothes, elaborate accessories and the fresh

flowers she wore in her hair - all of

which she often painted into her

magnificent self-portraits.

When Frida was 18, another terrible thing happened to

her: she was involved in a traffic accident that left her

badly injured. Courageous Frida had once dreamed of

studying medicine and becoming a doctor, but after

the accident, the pain was so tremendous that she had

spent months at a time lying in bed. It was during this

time that she discovered painting pictures as a way to

pass the time in her room; think of how boring it must

have been in a time before TVs or iPads!

To her amazement, Frida found that she could take all

the bad things that had happened to her - all the

unhappiness and sorrow it brought - and create

beautiful pieces of art with it.

Through the rest of her life, Frida faced

many other hardships, including 35 different

operations and

a heartbreaking

marriage, which

led to minor and

major depressive

episodes that

left her tearful and withdrawn. Even so, she always

channeled her pain into her art, creating beautiful and

surreal paintings that have made her one of the

most celebrated women

in art history today.

I paint my

own reality.

I never paint

dreams or

nightmares.

Frida

struggled

to feel

happy with

how she

looked

She channeled

her pain into her

beautiful art

HARRY

HARRY

With a royal residence as his home

and the Queen as his grandma,

Prince Harry didn t have what

you d call an ordinary upbringing.

As a little boy, he was third in line to the British throne, but

even so, the little boy with ginger hair and a mischievous

smile still loved lots of normal things, like pop music,

rugby and his lop-eared rabbit.

When Harry was 12, his mother, Princess Diana, died

suddenly in a car accident. Her death was a shock to

everyone that knew her.

Grief can affect you in lots of different ways; some

people find it hard not to get upset all of the time,

but Harry was the opposite. He felt like the best

thing to do was to bottle up his feelings, as thinking

about his mum would only make him sad and wouldn t

bring her back. Even though he always seemed happy

when people saw

him out and about,

behind closed doors,

he felt like his life

was in total chaos.

After 20 years of

shutting the world out, he finally opened up about his

feelings to a therapist. Harry suddenly realized that

he d been hiding so many overwhelming

thoughts that he hadn t dealt with. By talking

about how much he missed his mum, he felt a huge

weight off his shoulders.

Acknowledging his mental health issues made it easier

for Harry to keep

doing his job,

which takes him

all around the

globe meeting

different people.

He also created

a mental health

charity with his

brother and

sister-in-law called

Heads Together

, that spreads the

wonderful message that feeling empowered to talk

about your feelings can help you to move forward.

Sometimes it can be difficult to have sad thoughts, but

like Prince Harry, it can help you to understand other

people and make a big impact on their lives.

Even though he still misses his mother, Prince Harry s story

does end on a happy note. He found his dream princess

and married her at a big church ceremony with his family

around him, and they lived happily ever after.

Shattering

stigma on mental

health starts

with simple

conversations

Prince

6

Harry bottled

up his feelings,

seeming happy to

the outside world

He created a charity

with his brother

and sister-in-law,

empowering others

to talk about their

feelings

SERENA

WILLIAMS

SERENA

WILLIAMS

Serena Williams was just three years

old when she started training to

become a tennis star. As a little girl,

her father would take her to the local

court in their hometown of Compton

in California, where she d play for

hours in the sunshine against her

older sister Venus.

With a powerful serve, lightning-fast reactions

and oodles of energy, the Williams sisters

quickly captured the attention of the tennis

world, and Serena and Venus became a sporting

force to be reckoned with. Serena rose to become the

number one tennis player in the world, winning ten Grand

Slams and an amazing four Olympic gold medals.

Her incredible power and athletic ability gave Serena

the winning edge over her competitors, but over the

years, some people have scrutinized her strong and

muscular body type. I always say, Not everyone s

going to like the way I look, says Serena, who

has always spoken out against her critics.

Everyone has different types. If we all liked the same

thing, it would make the world a really boring place!

What matters most is that I like myself.

A few years ago, when she became a mum, she also battled

with something called postnatal depression , a type o