I found this book immensely helpful in understanding my depression and anxiety and piecing together the physiology and psychology of living with mental illness. Ruby Wax goes from the evolutionary viewpoint of why we are anxious to exercises helping us to retrain our minds to focus on the here and now.
If you aren’t a Ruby Wax fan you may not get on with the style in which the book is written but as a sufferer of mental illness and cynic I found Sane New World filled in blanks for me and gave me a level of understanding of my illness that I had previously struggled with. By no means is this book a replacement for medical therapy and as lightheartedly it is presented it is actually on my shelf of go-to manuals, which I refer back to for exercises and reference when the need arises.
I was heartened to find myself already doing some of the things Ruby mentions in the book when it comes to dealing with negative thoughts and am delighted to have pages of exercises to try to master to help with my anxiety, depression and OCD.
I found this to be a good book to begin building my personal mindfulness arsenal and am sold on the technique as Ruby cites a number of studies and references to back up her endorsement of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. A definite must-read for those suffering mental health issues, provided you like the humour Ruby Wax.
Links To Book:
Ajoobacats Blog 
I have the same book currently sitting on my coffee table, yet to be read. I surround myself with self help books but that isn’t enough, I need to actually read them! Perhaps ill start Sane New World today.
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I make a point of not buying self-help books as I find the act of purchasing is a hook rather than actually reading it. Sane New World is the first one I have bought in over a decade. The last one being Susan Jeffers Feel The Fear, which was very helpful. After reading Sane New World, I feel I ought to go to a mindfulness workshop to get some real world help practising it.
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As someone who’s dealt with depression/anxiety off and on for years, I’m definitely going to check this out. Seeing a therapist can be immensely helpful, but it’s not always affordable for everyone. I’m interested to learn more about the mindfulness aspects of self-therapy. Thanks so much for sharing this!
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I’m not a frequent non-Fiction reader and I approach most self-help books with utmost cynicism, but this one won me over and has got me thinking about doing mindfulness properly. I do have psychodynamic therapy weekly and I found this book helpful in the context of my therapy too.
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