(Don't) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation about Mental Health

by Kelly Jensen

Overview

A Washington Post Best Children’s Book of 2018

Who’s Crazy?
 
What does it mean to be crazy? Is using the word crazy offensive? What happens when a label like that gets attached to your everyday experiences?
 
To understand mental health, we need to talk openly about it. Because there’s no single definition of crazy, there’s no single experience that embodies it, and the word itself means different things—wild? extreme? disturbed? passionate?—to different people.
 
In (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, thirty-three actors, athletes, writers, and artists offer essays, lists, comics, and illustrations that explore a wide range of topics:
their personal experiences with mental illness,
how we do and don’t talk about mental health,
help for better understanding how every person’s brain is wired differently,
and what, exactly, might make someone crazy.
  If you’ve ever struggled with your mental health, or know someone who has, come on in, turn the pages . . . and let’s get talking.

This award-winning anthology is from the highly-praised editor of Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World and Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy.
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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616207816
Publisher:	Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	81,411
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Kelly Jensen is a librarian-turned-editor for Book Riot and Stacked. She's the editor of Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World. She loves eating black licorice and debating genre. Follow her on Twitter: @veronikellymars. 

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Chapter 1 What's "Crazy"?

Defying Definition Shaun David Hutchinson 2

Defining the Thing Is the Trick Ashley Holstrom 8

Reading about Trich and Mental Health Ashley Holstrom 15

What I Know and What I Don't Know Dior Vargas 16

What's, Well, "Crazy"? Sarah Hannah Gómez 22

Being Heard and Hating Sound Stephanie Kuehn 27

I Hate to Interrupt This Conversation about Mental Illness, but Guess What-I'm Autistic Mike Jung 32

Autistic Authors Who Mike Jung Thinks Are Great Mike Jung 39

Chapter 2 Where "Crazy" Meets Culture

The Devil Inside Christine Heppermann 42

10 Horror Films about Fear Stephanie Kuehn 49

Manic Pixie Dream Girl S. Jae-Jones 50

Constellations of Scars Monique Bedard (Aura) 58

Constellations of Scars (art) Monique Bedard (Aura) 62

Top 10 Crazies in Fiction S.E. Smith 63

What We're Born with and What We Pick Up along the Way Heidi Heilig 67

Some of the Things Mania Assures Me I Could Totally Be-and Wouldn't It Be Glorious? Heidi Heilig 70

The Alchemy of Healing Emily Mayberry 71

Chapter 3 The Mind-Body Connection

Bless This Mess Amy Reed 80

Loosened Associations Esmé Weijun Wang 87

Meeting Disorder Jessica Tremaine 88

I Underwent Cosmetic Surgery for My Body Dysmorphia … And I Wish I Hadn't Reid Ewing 95

Flattened Susan Juby 99

Dear 14-Year-Old Milck Milck 103

Chapter 4 Beyond Stress and Sadness

Rituals Libba Bray 110

The Five People You Overhear When Depressed at a Van Gogh Exhibit Emery Lord 124

Mystic Gemma Correll 130

Fighting the War on the Home Front Clint Van Winkle 131

Ways to Say "Anxiety" Esmé Weijun Wang 135

The Train of Overthinking Gemma Correll 137

Black Hole Victoria "V.E." Schwab 138

I'm Over Staying Silent about Depression Kristen Bell 144

Telephone Anxiety Gemma Correll 146

Driver's Ed Mary Isabel 147

The Pretender Lisa Jakub 151

Compassion Training: Metta Meditation Lisa Jakub 157

Chapter 5 To be Okay

Coda Meredith Russo 162

Tearing Feelings Apart Yumi Sakugawa 171

The Light Bulb, the Broom, and the Work They Don't Tell You About Kelly Jensen 175

Happiness Goes On Adam Silvera 181

Survival Mode Hannah Bae 186

A Witch's Guide S. Zainab Williams 193

Believe in Yourself Nancy Kerrigan 196

Call Me Crazy S.E. Smith 200

Keep Going Esmé Weijun Wang 209

Resources 211

Contributor Bios 215

Editorial Reviews

A Washington Post Best Children’s Book of 2018

“Jensen has brought together sharp and vivid perspectives concerning mental-health challenges. Featuring writers such as Shaun David Hutchinson, Libba Bray, Adam Silvera and Esmé Weijun Wang, this book asks questions and provides real-life experiences and hope for the future.”
—Washington Post, “Best Children’s Books of 2018”

“This (crucially!) diverse essay collection spans race, gender, sexual orientation, career, and age to hopefully reduce the stigma around mental illness.”
—Bustle

“Empowering . . . deeply resonant . . . With this diverse array of contributors offering a stunning wealth of perspectives on mental health, teens looking for solidarity, comfort, or information will certainly be able to find something that speaks to them. Resources and further reading make this inviting, much-needed resource even richer.”
—Booklist

“Lively, compelling . . . the raw, informal approach to the subject matter will highly appeal to young people who crave understanding and validation . . . This highly readable and vital collection demonstrates the multiplicity of ways that mental health impacts individuals.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Thought-provoking . . . Misconceptions about mental health still abound, making this honest yet hopeful title a vital selection.”
—School Library Journal, starred review

“This is a much-needed collection of writing about mental health and the impact it has . . . with mental health stigma unfortunately still being a serious problem, teens really need books like this right now.”
—Cultured Vultures

“The spectrum of voices and stories is wonderful to read. Not only that, but it mixes already published pieces as well as original memoir type stories. (Don’t) Call Me Crazy deals with the power of diagnosis/labels not being the same for everyone, and the inequality in the mental health discussion. It is an anthology that stresses individual experiences, support, and listening. If you want to read more about it, Jensen also includes a reading list. So it leaves you not only with more experience, but a jumping board of where to go next. It is equally hopeful, cathartic, inspiring and real.”
—Utopia State of Mind
 

A Washington Post Best Children’s Book of 2018

“Jensen has brought together sharp and vivid perspectives concerning mental-health challenges. Featuring writers such as Shaun David Hutchinson, Libba Bray, Adam Silvera and Esmé Weijun Wang, this book asks questions and provides real-life experiences and hope for the future.”
—Washington Post, “Best Children’s Books of 2018”

“This (crucially!) diverse essay collection spans race, gender, sexual orientation, career, and age to hopefully reduce the stigma around mental illness.”
—Bustle

“Empowering . . . deeply resonant . . . With this diverse array of contributors offering a stunning wealth of perspectives on mental health, teens looking for solidarity, comfort, or information will certainly be able to find something that speaks to them. Resources and further reading make this inviting, much-needed resource even richer.”
—Booklist

“Lively, compelling . . . the raw, informal approach to the subject matter will highly appeal to young people who crave understanding and validation . . . This highly readable and vital collection demonstrates the multiplicity of ways that mental health impacts individuals.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Thought-provoking . . . Misconceptions about mental health still abound, making this honest yet hopeful title a vital selection.”
—School Library Journal, starred review

“This is a much-needed collection of writing about mental health and the impact it has . . . with mental health stigma unfortunately still being a serious problem, teens really need books like this right now.”
—Cultured Vultures

“The spectrum of voices and stories is wonderful to read. Not only that, but it mixes already published pieces as well as original memoir type stories. (Don’t) Call Me Crazy deals with the power of diagnosis/labels not being the same for everyone, and the inequality in the mental health discussion. It is an anthology that stresses individual experiences, support, and listening. If you want to read more about it, Jensen also includes a reading list. So it leaves you not only with more experience, but a jumping board of where to go next. It is equally hopeful, cathartic, inspiring and real.”
—Utopia State of Mind
 

From the Publisher

★ 08/01/2018
Gr 7 Up—Opening up about mental health is difficult but necessary, asserts the editor of this thought-provoking anthology. Libba Bray personifies her obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety, while Stephanie Kuehn describes life with misophonia. Adam Silvera dispels the myth that successful or cheerful individuals don't experience depression; Emery Lord seethes at the ignorant remarks about suicide she overhears at a Vincent van Gogh exhibit. Contributors also examine gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, as in Hannah Bae's exploration of her Korean family's reluctance to seek help for her mother's schizophrenia. The rare lackluster entry never detracts from the whole. As in Jensen's Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World, illustrations and a peppy design enhance this scrapbooklike volume. VERDICT Misconceptions about mental health still abound, making this honest yet hopeful title a vital selection for libraries.—Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal

School Library Journal

2018-05-28
A lively, compelling anthology about mental health by over 30 contributors from a variety of backgrounds.The essays in this collection about mental health are accompanied by graphics, a list of novels to explore, and photographs, among other formats. Recurring themes include paying attention to the power of language and labels, the necessity of support and community, and the importance of normalizing conversations about mental health issues. Essays are mostly brief, highly personal accounts that discuss individual experiences with various conditions ranging from depression and bipolar disorder to trichotillomania and misophonia. Adam Silvera explains why he writes sad stories for teens and the meaning behind his Happiness Goes On tattoo. Libba Bray offers insights in the form of a dialogue among herself, her OCD, and her anxiety while seated on an airplane. The entries from artists, actors, journalists, authors, poets, illustrators, musicians, athletes, and bloggers offer inspiration and guidance both by example and through more explicit advice, with contributors representing different genders, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. While the loose structure disorients at times, making some entries feel randomly thrown together, the raw, informal approach to the subject matter will highly appeal to young people who crave understanding and validation. A valuable addition to library collections and for use by school counselors.This highly readable and vital collection demonstrates the multiplicity of ways that mental health impacts individuals. (resources, contributor bios) (Nonfiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews