I can't believe my last post was August! I have been reading, I just haven't been blogging.
I am going to do my best to catch up, so get ready for a number of new posts!
I read a number of memoirs in late August/early September. They were all stories about dealing with mental illness. As I consider my career change to social work/counseling, I want to do any "prep" work as I wait to apply to programs (and hopefully get in!), so I thought I would read some stories of mental illness.
The Quiet Room by Lori Schiller tells her tale of dealing with schizophrenia staring in her late teens into her 20s and beyond. Her story is sad and heartbreaking as she tries to find help and relief from a disease that was not well understood. While the story jumps around from different point of view, the best are Lori's chapters which feel as if you are reading Lori's journal and getting a raw view of her world of mental illness.
Beautiful Boy by David Sheff provides the parent's view as they watch their child delve into the dark world of drugs. Sheff's son Nic grows up in Northern California, but spends summers with his mother in LA. Sheff tries to determine if there is a causal link between the separation of his families and his drug addiction, but like most mental illnesses, does not get a definitive answer.
Sheff is a journalist, so his story is well written and he researches the various aspects of drug addiction and recovery - particularly methamphetamine which is his son's drug of choice. Beautiful Boy is a beautiful story of a father's love.
After reading his father's account, I tried to read Nic's young adult account, Tweak. Unfortunately, reading Tweak was too much for me. Nic's candid details made me too sad, too worried for all the teens in my life, so I wasn't able to finish it.
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