Marieke Bigg

''Confronting, thought-provoking and hopeful'' SARAH GRAHAM''A rallying cry for the importance of social and systemic approaches to psychiatric distress'' EMMA BYRNE''Stimulating and timely on psychiatry''s tendency to pathologise the ''abnormal'''' DANIEL TAMMET''A shocking and powerful critique ... this is essential reading'' HELEN KINGThere is no such thing as a normal brain, yet we live in a world that treats disorder as disease.Psychiatry rests on the belief that mental distress can ultimately be explained by biology: brain structures, chemical imbalances and genetics. Treatments from lobotomies to electroconvulsive therapy to prescription drugs have been touted as cures for ''disorder''. And somewhere along the way, the pharmaceutical industry has leapfrogged its patients, making millions designing drugs to treat disorders, then billions dreaming up disorders that require drugs. We are now diagnosed and treated for mental disorders more than ever, despite increasing evidence that environmental factors play a far greater role than biological ones. Laying out the steps for a mental health system that helps rather than harms, Marieke Bigg asks: how can we heal when faced with an industry that banks on keeping us sick?

Did you know: women are 59% more likely than men to receive an incorrect diagnosis when experiencing heart attack. Or: women are more susceptible to pain medications than men, leading to higher rates of addiction because doctors simply prescribe pain medication in the same way. Or: among alcoholics, women are almost 100% more likely to die due to alcohol-related diseases than men are? In a field that, for millennia, has been dominated by men. The vast majority of medicines and treatments that we use today were designed for, and by, men and the myth that medicine is gender-neutral has had terrible repercussions for women. In THIS WON'T HURT, Dr Marieke Bigg takes a deep dive into all the ways medicine is not gender neutral, using stories and experiences to demonstrate how these flawed mindsets have paved the way for sub-par treatment, and how prevailing attitudes in a patriarchal world can have unexpected effects far downstream. From sex and reproduction, to female bones and female pain, Marieke explores how women's bodies have been ignored, misunderstood and misdiagnosed, and asks the fundamental question: How can we make sure we do better? Blending fascinating examples with historical and cultural context, and with an eye to a better future, THIS WON'T HURT is a must-read for anyone committed to making this world safe to navigate for all.