Searching for Normal cover art

Searching for Normal

A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress and Neurodiversity

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

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.

© Dr Sami Timimi 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Attention Deficit Disorders Developmental Psychology Mental Health Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Psychology & Interactions Health

Critic reviews

Searching for Normal is so good I have been quoting its insights to friends ever since I finished it . . . A terrific book, timely and wise, thoughtful and thought-provoking
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)
Searching for Normal is a really important book that compellingly dismantles the house of cards that is the medical approach to mental distress. Using a mass of research evidence, it exposes how the current mental-health system traps and disempowers people and makes us all sicker. The book also offers hope that if we reclaim our common-sense understanding of emotions and behaviour, we can help each other to develop our strengths and overcome our difficulties (Joanna Moncrieff)
Searching for Normal is a provocative and insightful critique of how we’ve come to understand and treat mental illness. It compels us not to blame (and try to fix) our brains for mental distress, but to point the finger at inequality, poverty and a culture of excessive competition and comparison (Matthew Smith)
Searching for Normal asks two hugely important questions: why has there been such a surge in mental-health diagnoses in the current century; and how helpful are the treatments and labels given by the medical profession to those in distress? The answers given by Sami Timimi in this radical and meticulously argued book overturn much of the received wisdom about mental health, and shine a fascinating light on the dysfunctional relationship between modern capitalism and human emotion (William Sutcliffe, BACP-registered therapist and author)
[Searching For Normal] offers a refreshing and radical view as a counterpoint to the mainstream narrative and the increasing medicalisation of mental health . . . provoking, questioning and revelatory
All stars
Most relevant
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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
loved it, wonderful explanation of why a revolution in so called mental health is needed.

SO needed!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews