Category: mental illness

Book review: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Alfred A. Knopf, 2015

Violet and Finch both attend the same high school, and their first encounter takes place atop the Bell Tower, where Violet attempts suicide after surviving a car accident that kills her sister. Finch, a troubled kid with an abusive father, arrives there with the same intention but he saves her. This heartfelt YA fiction is about Violet and Finch’s friendship, love and mental illness. She’s the popular kid and an online blogger; he is the high school weirdo.

Violet struggles with survivor’s guilt and her parents refuse to acknowledge her trauma. Finch is quirky, fun, tortured, misunderstood, poor, easy to pity child bursting with originality, vigor, and enthusiasm. 

Violet and Finch are forced together to work on a school project where they must explore Indiana. Finch, with his carefree, spontaneous attitude, takes the assignment to heart and they set out to find all of the bright places in Indiana. In doing so they explore their relationship.

The book, similar in tone to The Fault in Our Stars, explores falling in love and that same love but fading some months later. The two characters try to fix each other but Violet is filled with regret and Finch is obsessed with death which the novel continuously explores. Ultimately, I agree with one of the reviewer’s blurbs at the front of the book that said something to the effect of this book isn’t meant for those suffering with mental illness but instead their friends.

Book review: Essential Maps for the Lost by Deb Caletti

Publisher: Simon Pulse, 2016

How do you go about getting lost? Answer: “There are many ways to be lost.”

The protagonist in Essential Maps for the Lost wants to escape herself. Why? It’s summer, one last summer in Seattle, away from her mom, a realtor, who expects more from her daughter, Mads (Madison) Murray, that she can give. Mads future has been planned for her, it’s a real estate career with her mother unlike the college path that Mads so desires. In order to make her mom happy, Mads stays with her aunt, uncle, and cousin during the summer while taking real estate classes. Then after the brief real estate curriculum at the local college Mads will go home and sign the paperwork making her a partner with her mom.

Do you think you’re having a bad day? Well, Mads, out for a morning swim collides with a dead body. The shocking discovery is of another lost soul who did the imaginable on one traumatic morning. The body of the woman was the mom to Billy Youngwolf Floyd, a grieving young man struggling to bypass the shadow of grief that encapsulates him as he carries a map in his pocket. It’s from his favorite children’s book: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Mads is obsessed with the dead woman and sets about to stalk her son: Googling the deceased, finding out from where she came, her home, and her family. That is the junction where questions, coincidences, and secrets come into play. Billy, who moves in with his grandmother, is full of questions. He is lost and confused. Billy, who works for an animal shelter, focuses on the only things that makes him feel better: that map from the book.

Billy and Mads, as well as Billy’s grandma, are full of depth, with wonderful personalities, and tangled emotions, albeit the grandma is a bit cranky. Despite the tragedy these characters work really well together and even the minor characters feel real.

So, Billy runs into Mads, who is standing outside his old house. What’s weird is he keeps running into her at random times, like on a bridge, where Billy thinks Mads might be thinking about jumping. They both wonder if they were supposed to meet? Fall in love? Madison wakes up to the world around her and she starts to notice other coincidences, like witnessing Billy commit a crime.

Mads obsession with the dead body, Billy’s deceased mom continues. But she can’t tell Billy that she’s the one that found the body. This book is really about how life can be unfair and cruel, how what you say and how you treat people (and animals) can be the difference between life and death, and how the opinions and hopes of your family members can be hard to deal with and how you can find hope in unexpected places.

This YA novel had a lot of substance to it such as self-discovery and finding out what you really want out of life. With beautiful, lyrical, sometimes witty writing, and pacing on the slower side, you’ll find it a touching read where love needs no reasons. Essential Maps for the Lost is an emotionally significant exploration of grief, mental illness, and hope, as well as the redemptive power of storytelling.

If I was appointed to give a speech to a large number of people, what topic would I choose?

The stigma of mental illness is the topic I’d choose. Because shame from bullying or even a simple lack of understanding of persons with mental illness is very detrimental to the health of those affected as well as our communities. It leaves the person with mental illness doubting themselves and backing off from social interaction to avoid the feeling of hopelessness and end up in isolation.

Instead, the person with mental illness should try to be social as opposed to isolation. Even connecting online, if in-person is not an option, in order to realize that these feelings are not just your own, but others feel them as well.  Don’t allow your mental illness to define you because there is power in language. Don’t allow ignorance to influence how you see yourself. Don’t allow the judgments of others affect you personally; the wrongdoers don’t even know you.

I’d choose to speak about this subject, if I had to, to bring about change. Change to a neutral language instead of condescending euphemisms and offensive language. We’re not victims, invalids, or defective. Those are painful to hear but need to be talked about so those ignorant about mental illnesses know it’s wrong and hurtful. Disability is not an illness and people with disabilities are not patients. We’re successful people that deserve to be referred to in a balanced manner. Our lives are not simply tearjerkers. We are resilient and deserve to be free of stigma.

Book review: Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Greenwillow Books, 2017

Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk straddles two worlds: in real life, she’s a shy and friendless high school student, but online, she is known as LadyConstellation, anonymous creator of the highly popular webcomic: Monstrous Sea. Eliza finds so much joy online that there’s hardly any joy left for her life offline. She lost herself in the world and characters she created, and it was so much easier for her to remain cocooned in her imaginary world than challenge herself to make real-life connections. But when Wallace Warland transfers to Eliza’s school, he reveals himself to be Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, rainmaker. Though Wallace and Eliza grow close and bond over their love for Monstrous Sea, Eliza struggles with revealing her own identity as the creator of the webcomic.

Wallace even begins to draw Eliza out of her shell. After a series of strange events threaten to expose everything, she’s worked to keep hidden, Eliza finds that her world has begun to crumble around her. She deals with anxiety, depression, and overwhelming pressure as she tries to learn how to reconcile the two halves of her life that seem so far apart. She lives in her comics and her dedication to her creation and her fandom borders on an unhealthy obsession as she treads the boundaries between her online presence and reality.

Shyness, escapism, obsession, and low self-worth were all very relatable in this story. It’s a great look at the messiness of love when depression and low self-esteem get in the way of communication. This heartbreaking, quick read is also worth reading for parents that are wondering, no, struggling to understand why your teen is a part of a fandom. The book has little drawings and stories from her webcomic throughout, making it more interactive and engaging. It’s delving into PTSD, anxiety, and depression is a trigger warning for this near tearjerker about teen angst and romance.

Secret Whispers available on 04/11/21

A beautiful family hiding dysfunction.

A house full of secrets.

An intelligent, creative, and schizophrenic girl.

An awkward, awesome, zealous boy.

Noxious peers. Worse high school. Embarrassing moments.

Danger lurks. Young love.  Reality?

What befalls one on an unraveling journey? And what is it like to question one’s own sanity? Adria is a high school junior with a penchant for painting and a clear goal: to hide the changes from anyone and everyone. In reality, she’s just developing schizophrenia. Genes are not in Adria’s corner. With an uncle as well as an older brother with paranoid schizophrenia, she’s got the family ties that make her life a challenge. Not that she needs any more stress. As the primary caregiver to her younger siblings, Adria’s life couldn’t be anything less than jam-packed and ready to implode. Adria must choose whether to risk everything, including her sanity and a first love, in a desperate attempt to save her family from the evil that stalks them.

Then there’s Ben, an awkward average teen but totally in awe at what he sees in Adria: a curious, quirky, and calm-natured dream that just applied for a job at the same store. He can’t help but be magnetically drawn to everything that is Adria, whom he meets when the odds are against her: in school, at their part-time job, and at home, especially. Little does he know her outward deficiencies are only the tip of the iceberg. Will he save the girl of his dreams, or is she destined to falter and pull him under with her when her mental health condition triggers.

Angela Grey, a writer with paranoid schizophrenia,, OCD, PTSD, and social anxiety, whom herself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a memorable moving tale about the sometimes unexpected and challenging road to first love.

Book review: Challenger Deep by Neal Schusterman

Thorndike Press, 2015

In recent years, mental health has become a rising issue in society, especially in youth. This story details mental illness, schizophrenia to be exact, showing real ups and down, not glamorizing it, and giving a real depth to it that is truly sad at times.

The narrative follows fifteen-year-old Caden on his journey to both the lowest point on earth and recovery. As a result of his mental illness, Caden seemingly lives in two separate worlds, one being the real world, and the other on a ship under the direction of a Captain.

This boy is written in a way that can also be understood by a younger audience as a YA novel that could also be read by mature primary aged readers. At the start of the novel, Caden’s parents try to cure his paranoia and anxiety through hobbies. As his schizophrenia worsens, Caden is hospitalized where he meets other teens, who all suffer from a variety of mental illnesses. It’s a potent, realistic, relatable narrative that connects to readers because of the utter honesty of one struggling with mental illness.

I recommend it to increase awareness of schizophrenia and those that struggle with it because it encapsulates the emotions of everyone involved.

Are my worries five, ten years ago, still relevant concerns today?

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.comwoman in white button up shirt holding her hair

A whole range of mental health issues are acquired or maintained through the development of delusional beliefs about ourselves and our world. Even the most common mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, are rooted by ingrained, strongly held delusional beliefs about ourselves or the world. Uncontrollable worrying is extremely common. Just think: Are my worries five, ten years ago, still relevant concerns today? And will they still be our worries in five, ten years from now? So, which delusional (not reflected by reality) beliefs do we chronic worriers hold now?

1. “I’m a born worrier.” or ” I’ve got to worry, so don’t even try to change me.”

2. “If I worry about something, it’s likely to happen.”

3. “Just because something I worried about in the past didn’t happen doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future.”

4. “Worrying will prevent bad things happening.”

5. “If I’m anxious about something, it must mean it’s a threat or a problem, so I should worry about it.”

6. “I must think through all the possible things that might happen otherwise I won’t be prepared.”

7. “If I let other people know what they do makes me worry, they will change their behavior.”

8. “It is better to spend a lot of time thinking about a problem than making a snap decision.”

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

woman in white dress shirt sitting on brown wooden chair

I realize it’s not simple or easy but these delusional beliefs have to be analyzed in the safety of the therapist’s office. It may not be something we look forward to but it is our goal for better mental health and positive repercussions.

Examine doubts and ease them.

Photo by Polina Zimmerman on Pexels.comupset woman looking in mirror

Doubt is a natural response like fear and joy. We shouldn’t try to beat it as if it were our enemy. Like fear, doubt can sometimes save our life. Some self-doubt is reasonable: I doubt I can jump from this building to the next or I doubt my legs would handle jumping from this roof. These doubts have in common their scientific fact or what we’ve learned about the strength and durability of human leg bones.

Where we get into trouble with self-doubt is when it’s based on assumptions or on limiting beliefs that have no basis in fact. Those assumptions and beliefs have us to avoid new challenges that confront us with the possibility of failure. But they also prevent us from learning the truth of who we are and what we’re capable of. We can’t believe in ourselves and hold onto these assumptions that others have passed down about the world and our place in it.

So, we need to start facing those doubts with some pointed questions like is this really true, do I believe it only because someone else has said this, is there any fact-based reason to believe it, or what could I do to put this belief to the test?

Mental illness can play havoc with our doubts. Sometimes we can confront them on our own if we have the insight available. Other times it’s helpful to go over these questions to poke at assumptions or limiting beliefs.