Searching for Normal cover art

Searching for Normal

A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress and Neurodiversity

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Searching for Normal

By: Dr Sami Timimi
Narrated by: Philip Ishak Arditti
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

More and more people are being diagnosed with ADHD and autism.

More and more people are being diagnosed with mental disorders.

Young people are being medicalised for behaviours that might be explained as entirely normal in other parts of the world.

Distress has been commodified over many decades by pharmaceutical companies, the media and the psychiatric establishment.

So how can we know when distress is normal and when it is something that needs to be treated?

In Searching for Normal, Dr Sami Timimi explores the political and cultural context of these phenomena and presents, instead, a deeply humane approach that looks at the person as a whole – their family context, their culture, their personal resilience – and advocates for a reframing of how we think about and treat distress.

©2025 Dr Sami Timimi (P)2025 Penguin Audio Attention Deficit Disorders Mental Health Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Psychology & Interactions Health

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Critic reviews

A brilliant book. I said “Hurrah!” and “Yes!” to every point Sami Timimi makes. A welcome antidote to the dangerous cult of overdiagnosis and the commodification of normal distress (Philippa Perry)
Sami Timimi is one of the most brave and wise voices in Britain. Everyone interested in thinking in a deeper way about what’s ailing us – and what isn’t ailing us! – should read this terrific, thought-provoking book (Johann Hari)
All stars
Most relevant  
Dr Timimi provides a much needed and hugely important perspective on what has happened in mental health and society in the last couple of decades. The pathologising and distortion of psychological distress has become an epidemic and taken our eye of the ball of the things that really matter and can help us mitigate and relieve distress. Beautifully and humanely expressed with clear evidence and experience from someone who knows their subject deeply and on the ground.

A much needed dose of sanity

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I really enjoyed this book. The vignettes at the beginning and end of each chapter complement the rest of the deeper material. My only complaint would be that the narrator pronounced some of the scientific words wrong.

Really interesting dive into what mental health really comes down to

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I knew nothing about this book and it is one of the greatest literary surprises of my life. Perhaps, partly because it resonates so much with my own thoughts and views, but there is so much more to it than that. It is an amazing mix of empathy and evidence.

Such a beautifully balanced incredible book.

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I enjoyed his analysis of current trends in mental health and his reach back to the theorists we used in my early social work training. However we know many people who are diagnosed with adhd in adulthood who have found that very helpful and reassuring. I wonder what the author might think about those?

Far reaching analysis

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the authors experience,approach, detail and context were all very appreciated and appealing to me , I am an avid researcher of all things Mental and I want more people to hear and see this author's work so that we stop following the defunct system as it currently is. Harm comes from harm

Radical, powerful and necessary re thinking of Mental Health

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