Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood

Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood PDF Author: Tanya Frank
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393531899
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
“By turns an eloquent meditation on the power of nature and a terrifying exposé of…parenting a mentally ill child into adulthood.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice A compassionate, heartrending memoir of a mother’s quest to accept her son’s journey through psychosis. One night in 2009, Tanya Frank finds her nineteen-year-old son, Zach—gentle and full of promise—in the grip of what the psychiatrists would label a psychotic break. Suddenly and inexplicably, Tanya is thrown into a parallel universe: Zach’s world, where the phones are bugged, his friends have joined the Mafia, and helicopters are spying on his family. In the years following Zach’s shifting psychiatric diagnoses, Tanya goes to war for her son, desperate to find the right answer, the right drug, the right doctor to bring him back to reality. She struggles to navigate archaic mental healthcare systems, first in California and then in her native London during lockdown. Meanwhile, the boy she raised—the chatty, precocious dog-lover, the teenager who spent summers surfing with his big brother, the UCLA student—suffers the effects of multiple hospitalizations, powerful drugs that blunt his emotions, therapies that don’t work, and torturous nights on the streets. Holding on to startling moments of hope and seeking solace in nature and community, Tanya learns how to abandon her fears for the future and accept the mysteries of her son’s altered states. With tenderness, lyricism, and generous candor, this compelling story conveys the power of a mother’s love. Zig-Zag Boy is both a moving lamentation for things lost and a brave testament to the people we become in difficult circumstances.

Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood

Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood PDF Author: Tanya Frank
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393531899
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Get Book Here

Book Description
“By turns an eloquent meditation on the power of nature and a terrifying exposé of…parenting a mentally ill child into adulthood.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice A compassionate, heartrending memoir of a mother’s quest to accept her son’s journey through psychosis. One night in 2009, Tanya Frank finds her nineteen-year-old son, Zach—gentle and full of promise—in the grip of what the psychiatrists would label a psychotic break. Suddenly and inexplicably, Tanya is thrown into a parallel universe: Zach’s world, where the phones are bugged, his friends have joined the Mafia, and helicopters are spying on his family. In the years following Zach’s shifting psychiatric diagnoses, Tanya goes to war for her son, desperate to find the right answer, the right drug, the right doctor to bring him back to reality. She struggles to navigate archaic mental healthcare systems, first in California and then in her native London during lockdown. Meanwhile, the boy she raised—the chatty, precocious dog-lover, the teenager who spent summers surfing with his big brother, the UCLA student—suffers the effects of multiple hospitalizations, powerful drugs that blunt his emotions, therapies that don’t work, and torturous nights on the streets. Holding on to startling moments of hope and seeking solace in nature and community, Tanya learns how to abandon her fears for the future and accept the mysteries of her son’s altered states. With tenderness, lyricism, and generous candor, this compelling story conveys the power of a mother’s love. Zig-Zag Boy is both a moving lamentation for things lost and a brave testament to the people we become in difficult circumstances.

Zig-Zag Boy: Madness, Motherhood and Letting Go

Zig-Zag Boy: Madness, Motherhood and Letting Go PDF Author: Tanya Frank
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0008382859
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
‘[A] moving, beautifully written book about love and mental health and life’ BOB ODENKIRK ‘Fiercely intelligent, humane and necessary’ NATHAN FILER, author of THE SHOCK OF THE FALL 'At its heart a story about love ... an astonishing new voice' ALI MILLAR, author of THE LAST DAYS

It Sucked and Then I Cried

It Sucked and Then I Cried PDF Author: Heather B. Armstrong
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416959149
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
An irreverent and captivating memoir about the unexpected joys and glaring indignities of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood—from the beloved creator of the popular mommy blog, Dooce.com. Heather Armstrong gave up a lot of things when she and her husband decided to have a baby: beer, small boobs, free time—and antidepressants. The eighteen months that followed were filled with anxiety, constipation, nacho cheese Doritos, and an unconditional love that threatened to make her heart explode. Still, as baby Leta grew and her husband returned to work, Heather faced lonely days, sleepless nights, and endless screaming that sometimes made her wish she'd never become a mother. Just as she was poised to throw another gallon of milk at her husband's head, she committed herself for a short stay in a mental hospital—the best decision she ever made for her family. Here, with biting wit and unrelenting honesty, Heather shares her battle with postpartum depression and all the other minor details of pregnancy and motherhood that no one cares to mention. Like how boring it can be to care for someone whose primary means of communication is through her bowels. And how long it can possibly take to reconvene the procedure that got you into this whole parenthood mess in the first place. And how you sometimes think you can't possibly go five more minutes without breathing in that utterly irresistible and totally redeemable fresh baby smell. It Sucked and Then I Cried is a brave cautionary tale about crossing over that invisible line to the other side (the parenting side), where everything changes and it only gets worse. But most of all, it's a celebration of a love so big it can break your heart into a million pieces.

The Perfect Other

The Perfect Other PDF Author: Kyleigh Leddy
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 035846935X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
All Kait Leddy had ever wanted was a little sister. When Kyleigh was born, they were inseparable; Kait would protect her, include her, cuddle and comfort her, and, to Kyleigh, her big sister was her whole world. As they grew, however, and as Kait entered adolescence, her personality began to change. She was lashing out emotionally and physically, and losing touch with reality in certain ways. The family struggled to keep this side of Kait private—at school and in her social life, she was still the gorgeous, effervescent life of the party with a modeling career ahead of her and big dreams. But slowly, things began to shatter, and Kyleigh could only watch in horror as her perfect sibling’s world collapsed around her. Kait was institutionalized with what would eventually be diagnosed as schizophrenia, leaving Kyleigh and their mother to handle the burden, shame, and guilt alone. Then, in January 2014, Kait disappeared. Though they never found her body, security footage showed her making her way onto a big bridge over a river, where it is presumed that she jumped. Kyleigh is left wondering: What could she have done differently? How could this shining light be gone? And how will she find peace without her sister to guide her way there?

Pathological

Pathological PDF Author: Sarah Fay
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063068702
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
AN APPLE BOOKS PICK OF THE MONTH “Masterfully written, distinctively researched, deeply humane . . . Genius.”—ANTHONY SWOFFORD, author of Jarhead “A major contribution . . . A necessary book.”—JOHANN HARI, author of Lost Connections “This book is a triumph of the spirit and the flesh.”—ELIZA GRISWOLD, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Amity and Prosperity In this stunning debut—both a memoir and a work of investigative journalism—writer Sarah Fay explores the ways we pathologize human experiences. Over thirty years, doctors diagnosed Sarah Fay with six different mental illnesses—anorexia, major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and bipolar disorder.Pathological is the gripping story of what it was like to live with those diagnoses, and the crippling impact each had on her life. It is also a rigorous investigation into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—psychiatry’s “bible,” the manual from which all mental illness diagnoses come. Yet as Fay found out, some of our most prominent psychiatrists have been trying to warn us that the DSM is fiction sold to the public as fact. In Pathological, former advisory editor at The Paris Review and award-winning writer Fay calls for a new conversation about mental health diagnosis, one based on rigorous transparency. With exquisite detail and a precise presentation of fact, she digs up her own life at the root to finally ask, Is a diagnosis a lifeline or a self-fulfilling prophecy? Powerful, mesmerizing, and unputdownable, Pathological sits alongside the other brave and inspiring classics of our time that explore a more intelligent, forgiving, and nuanced approach to human suffering.

When Quietness Came

When Quietness Came PDF Author: Erin L. Hawkes
Publisher: Bridgeross Communications
ISBN: 0987824449
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
"With an introduction by Dr. Richard O'Reilly"--Cover.

Henry's Demons

Henry's Demons PDF Author: Patrick Cockburn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439154716
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Narrated by both Henry Cockburn and his father Patrick, this is the extraordinary story of the eight years since Henry's descent into schizophrenia- years he has spent almost entirely in hospitals- and his family's struggle to help him recover.

Black Iris

Black Iris PDF Author: Elliot Wake
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476786429
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
It only took one moment of weakness for Laney Keating's world to fall apart. One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush.. Then the rumors began. Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn't worth sticking around for. If Laney could erase that whole yeas, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate.

Girl, Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted PDF Author: Susanna Kaysen
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804151113
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • 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. Her memoir of the next two years is a "poignant, honest ... triumphantly funny ... and heartbreaking story" (The New York Times Book Review). WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR The ward for teenage girls in the McLean psychiatric hospital was as renowned for its famous clientele—Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles—as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary. Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching document that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.

Diddi

Diddi PDF Author: Ira Pande
Publisher: Penguin Books India
ISBN: 9780143033462
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Perhaps because we called our mother Diddi, elder sister, our relationship with her was always somewhat ambivalent. More than a mother she was for us a difficult sibling, an eccentric, much older sister who belonged to a different generation. Attempting to unravel the enigma that was her mother, Ira Pande trawls through her writings to recall the life and times of a mother who was also a household name as Shivani, novelist, storyteller and columnist. In the process she discovers a rich and colourful cast ranging from family retainers, grandmothers and aunts to neighbours, friends and fictional characters. Built around the deep ties between mothers and daughters, Diddi salutes the often decadent but highly literate members of a family that produced both eccentrics and brilliant writers. Deftly dovetailing fiction and memoir, with brilliant translations of Shivani s own stories taking the narrative forward in several places, the book is also a record of what happened to the proud Brahmin families of Kumaon when the old feudal order vanished and joint families broke up into nuclear units. A fascinating experiment in the genre of the biography-novel, Diddi blurs the boundaries between history and fiction to create an intensely personal work that has universal resonance.