An Important Issue Learnt from Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

I’ve always been a fiction novel type of person. You would normally think that fiction novels are just stories, about fantasies or romances. But in reality, every story has topics and themes that they portray. These themes are sometimes irregular, and by reading these novels, you get to learn and understand more about these certain topics which you would normally learn about from articles or magazines.

Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella might look like a regular teenage novel to you. You might look at it at a bookstore and skip right past it. I’ve had this book for quite a while because it was a gift from my friend, and surprisingly, this book has caught my eye for having delivered some important messages that you wouldn’t expect look for in a fiction novel.

The story revolves around a middle-teen girl called Audrey, who suffers from social anxiety, and her journey to overcome her anxiousness involving interactions and relationships with other people. Judging by the bright colour of the book cover, you wouldn’t expect to be reading about the struggles of a girl overcoming her mental illness.

Mental illnesses and mental disorders are becoming more and more talked about these days. 20 years ago mental illnesses weren’t as common as these days, probably because of the lack of awareness back in the day. Now, more awareness is spread about these disorders meaning more people are being diagnosed by professionals.

The thing about people with mental illnesses is that some people look at them as lunatics of people who have brain damage. When in reality, most of the people who have mental illnesses live a normal life like you and me, and their disorders are somewhat hidden and not obviously shown to the world. For example, people who have depression and anxiety might seem happy-go-lucky at school or at work, but they are actually fighting to survive.

With that being said, I learnt how important it is to be kind to everyone around us. We have no idea of the battles and struggles someone is facing even if that person is close to us such as a classmate or a cousin. However, we also need to remind ourselves that we should not treat people with mental illnesses like patients or sick people. We should treat them equally as everybody else so they understand that they are welcomed and that they are normal human beings too just like the rest of us.