Written with Karr’s relentless honesty, unflinching self-scrutiny, and irreverent, lacerating humor, it is a truly electrifying story of how to grow up — as only Mary Karr can tell it. We see her fight between ambition and addiction and how, inevitably, her disease threatens everything she worked so hard to achieve. She added anorexia to her repertoire a few years later and took great pride in her ability to starve. . We say: Tara Westover's compelling coming-of-age memoir was a popular fixture on "Book of the Year" lists back in 2018, from The Guardian to The New York Times, The Economist and Vogue.Documenting her escape from a strict Mormon household in Idaho, Educated is an inspiring ode to the power of education and self-determination. Delights and Prejudices. Lacing Bob’s narrative with chapters providing greater contextualization, Sandy also shares background information about their family, the culturally explosive time and place of their uncle’s formative years, and the vitally important questions surrounding schizophrenia and mental healthcare in America more broadly. Deeply moving and bracingly intimate, Becoming traces Obama's evolution from a young girl growing up on the South Side of Chicago, to a successful lawyer, to mother to Sasha and Malia, to a politician's wife, to a political icon in her own right. “Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It’s my hope that sharing my experience will give hope to others who are learning to deal with their “difference.” I want them to know they don’t have to live their lives in a permanent “don’t ask, don’t tell” existence. A creative guy who enjoyed being at home alone or with his family, DMC turned to alcohol to numb himself, a retreat that became an addiction. Stossel offers an intimate and authoritative history of efforts by scientists, philosophers, and writers to understand anxiety. She holds a B.A. Manic does not simply explain bipolar disorder—it takes us in its grasp and does not let go.” (Amazon). “New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. Eventu­ally, hospitalized and diagnosed as bipolar, she was prescribed a medication that came in the form of three pink pills—lithium. The best food memoirs go way beyond the food and into someone's reality - food memoirs can be deeply revealing about families and working environments. She never imagined her high-achieving son would wind up handcuffed, dirty, and in jail. In this way the reader is able to viscerally experience the incredible speeding highs of mania and the crushing blows of depression, just as Cheney did. “Writer Sandra Allen did not know their uncle Bob very well. These accounts can be harrowing, but almost always offer comfort and education. But in 1997, when intoxication could no longer keep the pain at bay, he plunged into severe depression and became suicidal. They are men and women, children and adults, political prisoners, college students, politicians, musicians, business people, artists, fathers, mothers, daughters…all of African, Latino, and Asian descent. She was a prescription drug addict. Start 2021 with a brand new reading tracker, inspired by the Bullet Journal. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Your California Privacy Rights. is a hilarious, raw, and unforgettable account of how a terrified young woman, literally trapped by her own imagination, evolved into a (relatively) high-functioning professional smartass.” (Amazon), “Winner of The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, Grace Talusan’s memoir The Body Papers bravely explores her experiences with sexual abuse, depression, cancer, and life as a Filipino immigrant, supplemented with government documents, medical records, and family photos.” (Amazon). By the time she faced the fact that she was really ‘losing it,’ Colas had become a slave to her own ‘hobbies’ — from the daily hair cutting to incessant inspections of her children’s clothing for bloodstains. Cahalan was eventually diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, and her memoir is absolutely captivating. I’ve been a fan of Janet Mock since…forever. This is a confident, intoxicating, brassy book that takes the cost of sexual assault, racism, misogyny, and homophobia deadly seriously.” (Amazon). Back home in California, McClelland cannot stop reliving vivid scenes of violence. Here is Mark’s life childhood as the son of a struggling writer, as well as the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital. Find the Top Food Memoirs with the MSN Buying Guides >> Compare Products and Brands by Quality, Popularity and Pricing >> Updated 2020 10 Best Food Memoirs of 2020 | … Reporter Katherine Ellison and her son were both diagnosed with ADHD. In this riveting and intimate blend of science, history, and memoir, Adam explores the weird thoughts that exist within every mind and explains how they drive millions of us toward obsession and compulsion. From the Condé Nast building to seedy nightclubs, from doctors’ offices and mental hospitals, Marnell “treads a knife edge between glamorizing her own despair and rendering it with savage honesty.…with the skill of a pulp novelist” (The New York Times Book Review) what it is like to live in the wild, chaotic, often sinister world of a young female addict who can’t say no.” (Amazon). Because there’s no single definition of crazy, there’s no single experience that embodies it, and the word itself means different things—wild? The lessons I have learned are not limited to race, gender, or sexual orientation. Memoirs of mental health and addiction can also fill in the gaps of knowledge that those on the outside need to relate to those struggling with mental illness and addiction. This list of the 50 best mental health and addiction memoirs encompasses a wide scope of diagnoses, functionality, and experiences as diverse as the spectrum of mental illness. Sick is Khakpour’s grueling, emotional journey—as a woman, an Iranian-American, a writer, and a lifelong sufferer of undiagnosed health problems—in which she examines her subsequent struggles with mental illness and her addiction to doctor prescribed benzodiazepines, that both aided and eroded her ever-deteriorating physical health. Wrapped within Danquah’s engaging account of this universal affliction is rare and insightful testimony about what it means to be black, female, and battling depression in a society that often idealizes black women as strong, nurturing caregivers. And you should consider reading them. When Awdish was seven months pregnant, a benign tumor in her liver ruptured, causing massive blood loss, multi-organ failure, a stroke, and a miscarriage. This New York Times bestseller details the author's struggle with bipolar disorder. “Kiera Van Gelder’s first suicide attempt at the age of twelve marked the onset of her struggles with drug addiction, depression, post-traumatic stress, self-harm, and chaotic romantic relationships-all of which eventually led to doctors’ belated diagnosis of borderline personality disorder twenty years later. As she confronts the realities of her diagnosis, she opens up to the love that seems to have found her at an inopportune moment.” (Amazon). The result is a heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious portrait of a young man striving for stability in his life as well as his mind, and an utterly unique lens into an experience that, to most people, remains unimaginable.” (Amazon). With inspiring fearlessness, McClelland tackles perhaps her most harrowing assignment to date: investigating the damage in her own mind and repairing her broken psyche. The clinical terms used to describe her illness were so inadequate that she chose to focus instead on her own experience, in her words, ‘on what bipolar disorder felt like inside my own body.’ Here the events unfold episodically, from mood to mood, the way she lived and remembers life. Lorde writes about the importance of her support system, and her complicated feelings about post-surgical counseling and using a prosthetic breast. These are just a few of the topics covered in these 16 important memoirs by women. Larry McMurtry recounts the despair that descended after his quadruple bypass surgery. In bursts of prose that mirror the devastating highs and extreme lows of her illness, Cheney describes her roller-coaster life with shocking honesty—from glamorous parties to a night in jail; from flying fourteen kites off the edge of a cliff in a thunderstorm to crying beneath her office desk; from electroshock therapy to a suicide attempt fueled by tequila and prescription painkillers. What is it like to know that the gender assigned to you at birth was wrong? As she writes, she discovers her own true voice, seizes control of her story, and, in so doing, reestablishes her connection to her family, to her people, and to her place in the world.” (Amazon), “In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. Revealing how even the most successful people can suffer from depression, DMC offers inspiration for everyone in pain—information and insight that he hopes can help save other lives.” (Amazon). Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the crazy artist, she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. “Charlotte Pierce-Baker did everything right when raising her son, providing not only emotional support but the best education possible. 3 Memoirs That Explore The Many Facets Of Mental Illness One in five Americans have some experience with mental illness every year — and these three new memoirs … Written with Karr’s relentless honesty, unflinching self-scrutiny, and irreverent, lacerating humor, it is a truly electrifying story of how to grow up–as only Mary Karr can tell it.” (Amazon). Ann Beattie sees melancholy as a consequence of her writing life. Opening with the journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, Wang discusses the medical community’s own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness, and then follows an arc that examines the manifestations of schizophrenia in her life. She discusses the illness in the context of her life, including her struggle to get pregnant, the high expectations she had for herself and that others placed on her as a new mom, and the role of her husband, friends, and family as she struggled to attain her maternal footing in the midst of a disabling depression.” (Amazon), “The former middle distance Olympic runner and high-end escort speaks out for the first time about her battle with mental illness, and how mania controlled and compelled her in competition, but also in life. The memoir — his fourth — covers the highs and lows the Emmy winner has endured in recent years amid his health struggle, his second retirement from acting, his … From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to time in New York as a college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. And with memoir, there’s a lot more leeway as to how you might tell the story. But the biggest difference is her race: Stephanie is black. To fight alcohol addiction, live with chronic pain, or face your own terminal cancer diagnosis? Her memoir offers some striking insights into what it means to be addicted to alcohol, through the retelling of her own story and what she learned along the way. Lit: A Memoir (P.S.) ... celebrity interviews, recipes and health tips in your inbox. Six years later she made her first suicide attempt, then wandered the streets of New York City dressed in ragged clothes, tormenting voices crying out in her mind. Several drug addictions, some major hospitalizations, and over $100,000 later, she finally had a diagnosis: late-stage Lyme disease. Viral Facebook posts about C-section births, miscarriages, and late-term abortions have sparked important conversations and encouraged empathy. A crucial book for all those who might sometimes feel at war with themselves or their bodies. Lauren Slater eloquently describes her own perilous experience as a pregnant woman on antidepressant medication. Truth is a powerful tool. Built on the bones of fundamental identity questions as contorted by a distressed brain, My Body Is a Book of Rules pulls no punches in its self-deprecating and ferocious look at human fallibility.” (Amazon), “My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is an honest and heartfelt look at one young woman’s exploration of her sexuality, mental well-being, and growing up in our modern age. Grubbs ended up donating her own kidney to her now-husband, and throughout the process witnessed first-hand many racial disparities that African-American patients and donors face. “Elyn R. Saks is an esteemed professor, lawyer, and psychiatrist and is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry, and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Law School, yet she has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life, and still has ongoing major episodes of the illness. He wasn’t alone. With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. So at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor’s bizarre family, and befriending a pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. “With candor and humor, a manic-depressive Iranian-American Muslim woman chronicles her experiences with both clinical and cultural bipolarity. One of the funniest and most poignant books ever written about a mental illness, Agorafabulous! During her treatment, Awdish was horrified by some of the casual comments she overheard medical staff make, as well as ways in which insurance companies and hospital administrators let her down. By age nine, she was secretly bulimic, throwing up at home after school while watching The Brady Bunch reruns on television and munching Fritos. In A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story about Schizophrenia, Sandy translates Bob’s autobiography, artfully creating a gripping coming-of-age story while sticking faithfully to the facts as he shared them. Both an irreverent memoir and a rousing call to action, Haldol and Hyacinths is the moving story of a woman who refused to become a victim. Autobiography usually doesn’t involve a person’s inner life as much or emotional journey, as a memoir does. She grew up poor and hungry in the inner city. “In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she’d never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. If you suspend your disbelief for a moment and surrender to the idea that laughter is indeed the best medicine, then consider these books doctor’s orders. The heady thrill of meeting with her psychiatrist, Dr. Adam N. Kohl―whose relationship with Cree is at once sustaining and paralyzing―comes to be the only bright spot in her days. A powerful, funny, and moving narrative, Haldol and Hyacinths is a tribute to the healing power of hope and humor.” (Amazon). Christine Hyung-Oak Lee had a stroke when she was 33 years old. Alongside her policy achievements, she's made a sizable impact on pop culture—including penning one of the best-selling memoirs ever published. ... Davies was 51 when he finally went to the police, by which time his father’s ill health meant he would never stand trial. A shocking, hilarious, enormously appealing account of a young woman struggling to gain control of her life, this is Emily Colas’ exposé of a soul tormented, but balanced by a buoyance of spirit and a piercing sense of humor that may be her saving grace.” (Amazon). Grubbs—a physician—fell in love with a man who had end-stage kidney disease, and was on the transplant list. Told with fierce clarity, humor, and urgent lyricism, The Man Who Couldn’t Stop is a haunting story of a personal nightmare that shines a light into the darkest corners of our minds.” (Amazon), “On the outside, Terri Cheney was a highly successful, attractive Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer. Typewritten in all caps, a stream of error-riddled sentences over sixty, single-spaced pages, the often-incomprehensible manuscript proclaimed to be a ‘true story’ about being ‘labeled a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic,’ and arrived with a plea to help him get his story out to the world. Her life in shambles, it becomes clear that she is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I’m excited to read about what she’s learned in her position, and what suggestions she has to offer for inpatient mental treatment going forward. Ad Choices, 16 Must-Read Memoirs About Health Written by Women. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Pierce-Baker traces the evolution of her son’s illness and, in looking back, realizes she mistook warning signs for typical child and teen behavior. Mental health memoirs offer an eye-opening look at the lives of the mentally ill and those around them. When her mood-stabilizing medications aren’t threatening her life, they’re shoving her from depression to mania and back in the space of an hour. Discover new workout ideas, healthy-eating recipes, makeup looks, skin-care advice, the best beauty products and tips, trends, and more from SELF. Despite several stays in psychiatric hospitals, bombarded with tranquilizers, mood-stabilizers, and anti-psychotics, she was encouraged to keep her illness a secret—by both her family and an increasingly callous and indifferent medical establishment. Since we care about all kinds of recovery, we wanted to emphasize that drugs and alcohol are not the only ways that women suffer and not everyone recovers through a 12-Step program. Here, 16 must-read health memoirs. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot’s mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father―an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist―who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame. Tell Me Everything You Don’t Remember is Lee’s memoir about recovering from her stroke—and what came next. Listed in no particular order, and never meant to discount the brave contributions of other writers, the following 20 reads make a great place to start learning about mental illness from a first-person perspective. Mental illness touches every person's life in some way — that's one of the reasons Mental Health Month was created. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, he asks us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free.” (Amazon). Intoxication could no longer keep the pain at bay, he was pursuing a degree... About moods and madness was thin and blond, glamorous and successful 6 Honest ( and Humorous ) mental,!, when Jaime Lowe was just sixteen with hoarding an excruciating headache that never goes away graphically... The transplant list that she is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress disorder ’ book I... Imaginative, energetic and ambitious, Marya Hornbacher grew up in a comfortable American... A posh New England prep school—and with a prescription for the Attention disorder... Sexual orientation world, as well as the afflicted generations of stossel s. 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