Mental Me
Regular price
€21.99
Justin Rollins' acclaimed The Lost Boyz (below) traced the author's early life on the streets. Ten years on, this new book describes how he did time in adult prisons and experienced other challenges including trauma, associated fears, flashbacks and fixations. It traces the origins of his anxiety, obsessive compulsive behaviour, complex post-traumatic stress and other life-limiting conditions. It tells of the violence and abuse in his past and explains how this drove many of his actions. Fast paced and readable as any novel, the book describes how the author overcame 'locked-in' thinking and a violent lifestyle to become not just law-abiding but an acknowledged expert on street crime, gangs, drugs and youth culture. It will be of interest to a wide range of people working with disadvantaged young people and those confronted by mental health issues and/or affected by 'ghosts' from the past.
Following publication of his acclaimed The Lost Boyz (Waterside Press, 2011) the author became well-known in university and media circles making him a 'go to' expert on youth, gang and knife crime. He has for many years worked to divert young people from the criminal process. His struggle to overcome his own mental health challenges (resulting from abuse as a child and imprisonment) is the central theme of this captivating and informative new book. The author of the Foreword Noel 'Razor' Smith's best-selling books include A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun: The Autobiography of a Career Criminal (Penguin, 2005). As a journalist he has contributed to the national press and works for the highly respected prison newspaper Inside Time.