Pretend Friends: A story about psychosis
Little Bea has a pretend friend, so does Big Jay. Their pretend friends are very different and people react very differently to them. Little Bea has lots of fun adventures with her pretend friend Nye Nye. Big Jay's pretend friends don't make him happy, in fact they can make life quite hard for Big Jay.
This full colour story book helps to explain in a child-friendly way what life is like for those who hear voices or have other hallucinations or delusions as a result of mental illness. Appropriate for children aged 4 and above, it describes why these auditory and visual hallucinations are very different to the enjoyable imaginary friends many children create, and explains some of the things that may help people like Big Jay.
This story was first published in 2015. It sadly went out of print in 2020 because feedback from the original print version was that schizophrenia was an uncomfortable term for many people, and that psychosis is a preferential term. This had inadvertently created barrier for practitioners sucessfully using this book with service users and their families. Some first edition copies are available online but due to demand a downloadable edition below was produced that updated the language to make it more user friendly.
Please download and share with people who may find this story useful to use with family and friends.
This full colour story book helps to explain in a child-friendly way what life is like for those who hear voices or have other hallucinations or delusions as a result of mental illness. Appropriate for children aged 4 and above, it describes why these auditory and visual hallucinations are very different to the enjoyable imaginary friends many children create, and explains some of the things that may help people like Big Jay.
This story was first published in 2015. It sadly went out of print in 2020 because feedback from the original print version was that schizophrenia was an uncomfortable term for many people, and that psychosis is a preferential term. This had inadvertently created barrier for practitioners sucessfully using this book with service users and their families. Some first edition copies are available online but due to demand a downloadable edition below was produced that updated the language to make it more user friendly.
Please download and share with people who may find this story useful to use with family and friends.
| pretend_friends_v2.pdf |
Coming soon..... A narrated video version.
Contact me if you would like to be notified when this is released.
Contact me if you would like to be notified when this is released.