You Need to Get Help

In Ellie McAfee's debut work, YOU NEED TO GET HELP: A Shameless Work in Progress, the author uncovers the mental health stigmas that many adults, herself included, carry with them from their childhood. Wanting others to feel comfortable enough to seek out resources, treatment, and boundaries, she sets out to spread one underlying message: It is okay to not be okay.

Within these pages, you will be exposed to the common, yet detrimental, language choices that perpetuate the idea that mental illness is only for the weak or the deranged. McAfee shows how you can not only grow from these habits, but how you can use these experiences to create a safe space for others as well. She does this by sharing personal moments from her childhood and adulthood. Stories such as:

• The school nurse labeling her as a hypochondriac for experiencing anxiety.
• How she hid her medication from her friends for fear they would think she was "crazy".
• Her friends and family struggling with the scary effects of teen depression.

If you have ever struggled with mental health or have felt defeated, overlooked, or misguided about your own identity, then YOU NEED TO GET HELP is for you.