A Can of Madness: Memoir on bipolar disorder and manic depression

by Jason Pegler

Product Description "A Can of Madness does what it says in the... er can. A brilliant memoir of mania; all the pain, humour, fear and despair is chronicled here in prose of clarity and distinction. Unforgettable and important" - Stephen Fry "This book will help people to understand one of the greatest issues of our time, how to treat those who are mentally disturbed, as human beings" - Rt. Hon. Tony Benn MP "The author has done all of us a service by writing about how it feels, not just to be manic depressive, but to have a life of fraught and edgy encounters with just about everyone" - The Times Literary Supplement Description A vivid, honest and sometimes disturbing memoir about the experience of having a diagnosis of manic-depression. It was in two stages (not using a diary that i collected as it says in the Mind Press Release 2002. After i read Prozac Nation in 1998 i wrote two pages. Knowing i had something amazing to say i was paralysed for two years with the thought of writing it. Then when i was given my own flat in Vauxhall after my last hospitalisation in St Thomas's Hospital in 2000 i wrote every day for about 12-16 weeks and got it all of my chast. From that moment i felt that i had written the book that had saved the Ecstasy generation although it turned into a mental health crusade to give other people a voice. Like other books in this genre, the author is often painfully honest about his experiences. He recounts a dizzying, dark and sometimes euphoric journey through a world of elation, despair, binge drinking, drugs, raves and psychiatric wards. As well as attempting to educate the reader, the book also provides optimism and hope, showing that it is finally possible to learn to live with, and accept, having a mental health problem. Writing A Can of Madness saved my life and alot of other people have told me that it has helped their lives. About the Author Jason Pegler is 33 and lives in London. Jason was diagnosed with manic depression in 1993 and wrote 'A Can of Madness' to stop other seventeen year olds going through what he went through. Graduating from Manchester University in 1998 he founded Chipmunkapublishing the mental health publisher which aims to help mental health sufferers. Pegler is a mental health activist, journalist, rapper, public speaker and consultant on anything that promotes a positive image on mental health. In 2005 Pegler won the New Statesman's Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He is a key figure in the mental health movement. Book Extract As I was being driven off in the back of a police van in a space suit, I thought I was Donovan Bad Boy Smith being driven to a rave. I could hear music in my head and flashed back to another night at The Brunel Rooms in Swindon. The Brunel Rooms, a hard-core Mecca for druggies from Gloucester and surrounding areas in the early to mid nineties. Donovan was so hardcore when I saw him there that he'd refused to turn off his set at 3. He'd carried on until 3.30 when someone finally turned off the electricity mid flow. Talking of flows (as opposed to stable mindsets), just how the fuck do you live with a mental illness? Don't ask me, I'm still trying to find out now. After all, it's not something you plan, let alone something you'd ever expect to have. As we all say: it won't happen to me. But it can. And in this case, it did. And if Hercules and Ajax couldn't hack it, how the hell could I? Unsurprisingly, I didn't - and that's why I wallowed in self-pity for so long. So, do you want to know what it's like to be crazy, mad, loopy? Well I'm about to tell you. I'm also going to tell you how it feels to be suicidal for months on end - the fate of the manic. One thing, however, is for sure: The sooner you kill mania the better. For you're a danger to yourself and other people when you don't know what you're doing.

248 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 2002

Reviews

[Chris Danes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truly the worst book I have ever read about mental health. Notice particularly his unashamed, disgusting and self-congratulatory description of his rape of a drunken girl early in the book, having just said how much women have always found him very attractive - a story told without any apparent shame or repentance. He has an absurd hatred of the medical profession and encourages others to stop taking their medication. He says he has now cured himself of bipolar disorder, something which has so far eluded scientific research and counselling. Look at his various profiles on the Net and you will come to the conclusion very soon that he is still full of manic depression's grandiose delusions. As a long term sufferer myself I wish a cure were as easy as Pegler so absurdly and lucratively thinks. A foolish - and even dangerous - book.

[Lottie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. This guy is a piece of shit. He says "who knows" about the possibility of him becoming a pedophile or rapist and blames it on mania. The more I read the more I zoned out and skimmed and skipped, so I missed a lot of things mentioned in other reviews, like the blatant rape of a drunk woman. He calls himself "considerate" for not "making a move on" a girl he had walked in on in the bath at the mental hospital, insists that his use of the N word isn't racist, and other gross incel-y stuff that really doesn't do bipolar disorder or the attached stigma any favours, such as claiming everyone in school was "jealous of his intelligence". Jason Pegler does not speak for the bipolar community at all.

[Pesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every one who sees me with this book frowns, looks at me in shock. I teased one of my sisters that am trying to idenfity with depressed people. She said what goes on in people's minds can be told from the literature they read. In short, that i could be one of them. I dont understand what's so wrong about trying to learn about what those other 'not-normal' people go through.

Anyway, i finished it (thank God) before my friends started avoiding me.

It was an enlightening read; from how it all starts, to some little insight in the statistics on manic depression, to the different ways people may cope,(or fail to) with it.

Bits of the story don't appear coherent though, and therefore it might require a tad more attention while you read. But the slight disjointedness makes the story more real, considering who is writing it.

[S. Westwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jason is an inspiring man who is doing great work to break the stigma still attached to mental health issues. This book really shows you what it must be like to suffer bipolar as a young man- trying to come to terms with his own mind at a time of turmoil. Its a great read but doesn't do Jason justice as the man he is today. What it does do is prove how mental illness can affect anyone.