Madness in Aussie Readers

Feb 01, 2013 Stephanie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle, read-2013, netgalley, aww-2013

Kate Richards is a trained medical doctor who works in medical research. She is also, to paraphrase her in this book, "mad".

This book takes the reader on a journey through her episodes of psychosis and self harm, through mania and a quest to find a useful psychologist and psychiatrist, as well as the medication and skills Richards needs in order to manage her illness.

This is one of the most beautiful, heart wrenching and painful memoirs of mental illness I have read.

Richards is a beautiful write Kate Richards is a trained medical doctor who works in medical research. She is also, to paraphrase her in this book, "mad".

This book takes the reader on a journey through her episodes of psychosis and self harm, through mania and a quest to find a useful psychologist and psychiatrist, as well as the medication and skills Richards needs in order to manage her illness.

This is one of the most beautiful, heart wrenching and painful memoirs of mental illness I have read.

Richards is a beautiful writer, and uses her skill to describe her illness in sometimes gut churning detail, especially in regards to the periods of self harm she goes through (the book, for example, opens as she tries to amputate her own arm in a period of psychosis).

My main thoughts upon finishing this book are these:

As a society, we are not looking after those who are mentally ill the way we should. Richards describes mentally ill people being refused treatment at a hospital after they have self injured (or sub-standard care being provided as "punishment" by emergency room doctors). There is help there, but the patient almost needs to be an advocate for themselves to get it, which many people in the depths of psychosis are unable to do.

How much difference a good psychologist or psychiatrist can make to a patient. I think it takes a very particular type of person to be able to work well in these fields, and it's clear that if Richards hadn't found a psychologist she could work well with (which seems to basically be a matter of chancing upon the right one, after going through the wrong ones, who can be damaging), she very likely wouldn't be alive today.

I don't know if there are answers to these issues, and Richards herself doesn't begin to try to find any. But the issues are there, and it makes me wonder how many people are suffering in silence with mental illness, or are made sicker by medical professionals.

Truly an amazing book. I'd recommend anyone who has an interest in mental health to give it a read. ...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Bri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, australian-writers, memoir, 2013

This book resonated so deeply within my heart that it shattered me into a million little pieces while still holding me close like a mother rocking her baby in her arms for the first time.

Raw, brutal, poignant, bittersweet.

Every counsellor, therapist, mental health nurse, psychologist, Emergency Room registrar, GP and psychiatrist should have to read this book. Everyone should have to read this book.

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Nov 20, 2020 Kim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-read

Maybe 3.9 stars another hard to rate book.
Conjoined twins, a man adrift in the bush, a damaged woman- all are in need of care and concealment from those who might harm them.
Quite original and excellent Australian literary fiction. Do need to suspend disbelief here and there to get the most out of it, otherwise I may have rated it higher.

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