'Rose Cartwright breaks all our old certainties and liberates us to approach our mental struggles with new humanity and creativity. The book cannot fail to interest anyone concerned with their mind's bewildering beautiful complexities' ALAIN DE BOTTON 'Radically open-minded. An extraordinary, paradigm-shifting work' NATHAN FILER Featuring interviews with leading figures including Amanda Fielding, Michael Pollan and Gabor Maté What if treating misery as a medical problem is making us miserable? What if our intense distress is not a symptom of illness, but a desperate expression of our need for love and connection? Someone dies by suicide every 40 seconds. Antidepressant use in the West has more than doubled in the last twenty years. And there is still no biological test which can diagnose any mental health problem. So where are we going wrong? In this revolutionary book, Rose Cartwright reveals how the failure of the mental health system to cure her OCD led her to radical action. While she explored her trauma through a series of mind-bending psychedelic trips, she began to interrogate our dominant medical paradigm. Part radical manifesto, part revealing memoir, The Maps We Carry provides a new path to understanding and re-evaluating our approaches to mental health.

This is a book is for everyone who has questioned why they are the way they are. Gold title * A trailblazing memoir from 'the poster girl for OCD' (The Guardian) that upends current thinking in psychiatry of mental health as a biological issue. Hugely conversation-starting, exploring the use of psychedelics in understanding and healing trauma. * Incredible quotes in from the likes of ALAIN DE BOTTON and NATHAN FILER * Extremely well-connected author with a big traditional media profile and established presence within the mental health world. Rose was featured in the Guardian Weekend on HB publication and online her interview was viewed by 500,000 people - the site's most read piece * Featuring interviews with leading figures including Amanda Fielding, Michael Pollan and Gabor Maté * Immensely accessible and engaging way into a difficult but universal subject: generational trauma and manifestations of the symptoms of trauma. A contender for all the big non-fiction prizes including the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, Nero Awards and Baillie Gifford Competition: The Body Keeps the Score;Reasons to Stay Alive;When the Body Says No;This Book Will Change Your Mind about Mental Health; the school of life; the course of love;. By;Bessel Van Der Kolk;Matt Haig;Gabor Mate; Nathan Filer; Alain de Botton.