Understand my Sorrow
Leave it to Lily to get me in on another reading challenge when I’m already up to my eyeballs in delicious lit. However, she deserves a HUGE pat on the back for taking this subject at all, and that demands my attention and participation. And… well… alright, alright, it’s timely and I need to read these.
Mental Illness. It’s not an easy subject. It’s not an easy life. Very frankly, I’m scared of going crazy. I’m a survivor of suicide. I lost my mother. And I sit in an office, on a couch, each week and pour out my heart over it. That and the fact that my family was completely unable to handle the topic of mental illness. They chose blame to hide their guilt and grief, pointing the finger at a scapegoat. Me.
So, you can see why I feel this topic is of great importance. Lily asks us to read four books, one on each of four different mental illnesses. For myself and my own issues and growth and journey, I’ve chosen to focus mainly on memoirs of schizophrenics and the topic of suicide.
Because I was not able to help my mom, there’s a real part of me that doesn’t want to read tales of those who have come back from the brink and been cured. But if I can get an inkling of understanding…
Neither do I look forward to hearing the siren call of suicide in someone’s head. The allure. I want to run. Hide. Pick up another Brandon Sanderson and lose myself in it. But I do that already. If I don’t face this, if my emotions can’t mature, I’ll never get off that couch.
Can ya tell how much I’m looking forward to this?!
The Reading Challenge is called Understand my Sorrow, and here are my books:
The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness
ps. I’ve picked more than required because a) I need it and b) they don’t all appear to be at my library so I’ll have to see which ones I can find.
You may also be interested in these posts:
- Too much silence I have so little left of my mother. Her mental...
- A most pivotal chapter There is always a temptation in recovery – and I...
- Why the police? Jesse’s story was both enlightening and difficult to read. He...
- Admission of Anger With the help of the book Silent Grief and a...
- The Gargoyle Some reviewers say that the beginning of this book is...
cecilia
Kalanna
Holli
Thanks for joining, Kalanna. I’m sorry to hear about your mom. It must be very, very difficult for you and I can only imagine your struggles. I’m very happy you decided to join though. I think it will help you to maybe somehow get some peace or at least start on the path.
The Day the Voices Stopped is really good, BTW. It was my first ever book I read on schizophrenia and it shocked me and was the book that opened my eyes to what’s important out there (even though I myself suffer from chronic depression).
Anyway, thank you again.
This is very brave. I commend you and your courage to do this for yourself. Have you read Girl, Interrupted?
Hey Lily, I’m happy to join, all joking aside. I think you are right – it will put me on the right path. I hope it does something for you as well. Depression is so difficult. Let’s stand together. Breaking the silence around these issues is what is most important. In silence so much is lost.
Aww, AJ, thanks. No, haven’t read that one, but I did see it in the lists of books having to do with mental illness. Would you recommend it?
Hey kalanna, I’ve blogged publicly about my support for public awareness of mental illness and the need to de-mystify it. I’m a huge proponent — several people in my family are on medication for disorders. But I wouldn’t want to read four books in a row on this topic. Reading even one of these is pretty sobering. Four? Yikes.
Oh it’s highly unlikely that I’ll read them all in a row, Teri. I agree with ya, way way too sobering.
My flow of reading tends to follow a path of fiction/nonfiction/fiction/nonfiction anyway. Put another way, it would be translated “take my mind away/teach me something/take my mind away/teach me something.”
The time in between hard topics or nonfictions gives that buffer space to let it all sink in, as well.
I do certainly appreciate the concern,