Thursday, May 26, 2016

The Quiet Room


The Quiet Room was a fantastic book. I prefer to have a book that keeps me interested and wanting more and this book did just that, I didn’t want to put it down. I would highly recommend this book to any of my friends looking for something a different than they typically read. The reader can easily picture the people in their head and the scenarios are described so well that they feel involved in the story. It was definitely not a book I would have thought I would read in an English class, maybe a psychology class, but it was such a great book I can now see why it was chosen. Books I typically read for pleasure are generally romance or adventure novels. I don’t know if this is a book I would have picked on my own, however I would definitely read another one like it.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, the same type of therapy doesn’t always work for people with the same diagnoses; I would say this this book absolutely reiterates that. Lori, who was diagnosed with schizophrenic-affective disorder didn’t respond to some of the typical treatments of drug and psychotherapy that people were typically given. I would say that this book brought perspective to my life, of the struggles one goes through with a mental illness. Lori’s struggles weren’t obvious to those on the outside except that something was very different, if not odd, about her. We got to hear from her perspective what was going on in her mind, the voices saying “to die, to die, to die” or telling her that no one liked her. She couldn’t focus on anyone talking to her when the voices were shouting at her; she worked so hard to drown them out with music, or trying to focus on the person talking. I can’t even begin to comprehend the struggle and frustration she, and others with disorders, go through on a daily basis.

 

Sunday, May 22, 2016

"How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?" - John Lennon


I think mental illness is a tough subject to discuss because we never know who is suffering from it. Even the people who are near to us may hide it because of the stigma surrounding it and fear of having others look at them differently. In my Psychology class we talked about mental illness and I found it rather intriguing that multiple people can be diagnosed with the same illness but their treatments vary. Why is it that what works for one person doesn’t always work for another? We also discussed schizophrenia and how it can gradually occur with symptoms increasing over time and in some people be well handle with a combination of drug and psychotherapy. My father in law suffers from bipolar disorder, and while I was never around when he was really struggling with it, he keeps it pretty well under control with his medications.

Unfortunately, one of the first things that comes to mind when I think about what has shaped my opinion on mental illness is mass shootings. How if that person would have been diagnosed as clinically depressed (or some other mental health issue) that the incident could have possible been prevented. When discussed in the media they always talk about the need for easier access to treatment and better diagnoses; however, it’s also hard to diagnose those who don’t seek some form of treatment. It may be possible by having easier access to mental health resources that those suffering might seek out the help they need.

The poems written by Kaitlyn Tramp, especially “Lie-er”, remind me that it won’t always be easy to see who is suffering from mental illnesses, and that it will not be easy to have them open up or seek help. I know that for me, when I suffered from postpartum depression, this poem fit my situation perfectly. I was always saying I was fine, that I didn’t need help, nothing was wrong, and that could not have been further from the truth. I wanted someone to notice, someone tell me that it was okay, take me in and help me figure things out. Luckily I have a great friend that could tell things were not okay and kept “pestering” me until I told her what was going on. Even though she is over a thousand miles away she could tell that I was silently crying out for help and new exactly what to say to get me to express my feelings and get the help I needed.  I was very fortunate that I have someone who cares about me and knows me well enough to step in when I could no longer bare the weight of my depression on my own.