Author:Benji Waterhouse
Graham thinks he’s Jesus but ends up being sectioned after nearly drowning in a swimming pool trying to walk on water. Barbara flies to the UK in a bridal gown so that she can marry Harry Styles, and it’s only the death threats made to Styles then girlfriend (Taylor Swift) that result in her sectioning. Jamal knows that the psychiatric ward is in fact a TV set because it’s so shitty and real ones would be much nicer. Damien unintentionally outs himself after drinking hand gel by announcing his illness, thereby proving himself sufficiently sane to remain at large. Benjamin senses his mental heath worsening, uncertain he’s really fit to do his job, struggling to come to terms with an attention seeking mother and an angry father. He’s also the psychiatrist responsible for treating all the preceding characters and author of this “fly on the padded wall” book.
Mental illness is no laughing matter, but for the most part Waterhouse makes himself the target of the jokes. It’s a personal book, as much about this relationship with his parents and his girlfriend as it is the people he works with or tries to heal each day. His patients and their conditions are described with care and compassion, the darkness that defines so much of his working day lightened by the absurdity of so many of the situations he encounters. He admits to often being mistaken for a patient by other staff, and once accidentally sectioned himself due to filling the form in wrong.
As he points out early on, as a psychiatrist you are basically a social worker with a stethoscope, but you can’t hold it to someone’s head and hear the voices. A patient who says they are in a bad place could be telling you they are suicidal or just visiting Peterborough. He’s experienced both. It’s a line of medicine where you can never be 100% certain about anything, and yet you have to able predict future risks against a backdrop of chronic underfunding. He’s unprepared for the trauma of watching a patient receive electro-convulsive therapy, juxtaposed with the patient’s immediate improvement.
There are a great many sobering passages in this book but none more so than when Waterhouse points out that 25% of the population will suffer mental illness at some time in their life. It represents 28% of the nation’s overall sickness burden, but gets just 13% of NHS funding. There were 67,000 psychiatric beds in 1988, but only 18,000 by 2019.And if you are one of the lucky few to actually get a bed, it could be 300 miles away. Something that won’t happen if you end up on crutches.
Waterhouse uses the book to debunk some common mental health myths – people with schizophrenia are more likely to be victims of violence not perpetrators, limiting the number of paracetamol you can buy at one time reduces suicides simply because it introduces enough of a delay that might lead to someone changing their mind. Although he’s still pissed off that he can’t use the fact that he’s also buying long life milk as a way round the rule.
Of course, there are parallels with Adam Kay and “This Is Going To Hurt”. Kay was far from the first to write about his medical experiences, but his mix of humour and gritty observation are also much in evidence here. Waterhouse book has already been optioned for TV, so his time as a psychiatrist may be coming to an end. Before Kay turned his diaries and notes into a book, he read excerpts at comedy festivals (which was where the idea for a book arose), and I saw Waterhouse present a stand up version of this book (as Benji Waterstones) at the Edinburgh Festival last year. I saw Kay there too, his TV success enabling him to sell rooms 4 times the size of Waterhouse. In truth, neither really seem to be natural standups. Kay’s shows are effectively book readings, which are a little stilted and he’s much funnier adlibbing or playing music. Waterhouse is more natural but performed it lacks the sharpness of the written word.
Is laughter the best medicine? Waterhouse maintains it can be very helpful, although he’d still go for an antibiotic if you end up with chlamydia. Either way, this a funny, sharply observed book.
Length of Read:Medium
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
ECT
One thing you’ve learned
Never play silence-chicken with a psychiatrist
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