May is recognized as Mental Health Awareness Month by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, with a focus this year on the message: "You Are Not Alone." It's a pertinent message; mental health conditions are largely isolating at the best of times and are only further so during a time where everyone has been experiencing additional forms of isolation. Millions of people in this country suffer from some form of mental illness, including 1 in 4 Mainers, and many people's mental health struggles have been exacerbated during the pandemic. Accessing services can often be more difficult than usual in our currently upended world. NAMI Maine has recently shared that calls for mental health services have gone up over the past year, indicating both that many Mainers are suffering but also providing the hopeful indication that they are reaching out and seeking help.
While there are many wonderful print resources out there for mental health, the following list focuses on the personal perspectives. After all, no one can understand what it's like to live with a condition unless they do so themselves. The best we can do is listen, read, try to understand. Or perhaps we are suffering ourselves and may see something of that experience reflected in these memoirs, which cover a variety of conditions and encompass both humor and profound, stark gravity. Read on to discover just some of the incredibly honest portrayals of mental illness out there and to request through our catalog.
(Image courtesy of NAMI)
Mental Health Memoirs: A Reading List
The Memory Palace: a memoir, Mira Bartók
"The daughter of piano prodigy Norma Herr describes how she and her sister were forced by their mother's violent schizophrenic episodes to discontinue contact with her until the author's debilitating injury changed her sense of the world and enabled a healing reconciliation." - From NoveList Plus
"The author reflects on the death of her newborn daughter and the depression caused by the event while considering her experiences as part of the larger history of understanding depression." - From NoveList Plus
Marbles: mania, depression, Michelangelo + me, Ellen Forney
"Eisner nominee Forney confesses her struggles with being diagnosed as bipolar in this witty and insightful memoir. Beginning with the manic episode that led to her diagnosis, Forney chronicles her journey toward reconciling the dual natures of bipolar disorder: a dangerous disease, but also a source of inspiration for many artists." - From Publishers Weekly
Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig
"An internationally best-selling author shares his struggle with depression and, helping those who are confused or daunted by the illness, reveals how he was able to triumph over the disease in order to live again." - From NoveList Plus
An Unquiet Mind: a memoir of moods and madness, Kay Redfield Jamison
"This incredibly insightful work chronicles the life of a psychologist and professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University who suffers from manic depression." - From Library Journal
Furiously Happy: a funny book about horrible things, Jenny Lawson
"The popular blogger presents a humorous and candid memoir about her lifelong battle with severe depression and anxiety, discussing how embracing both the flawed and the beautiful parts of life have enabled her to find joy in outrageous ways." - From NoveList Plus
RX: a graphic memoir, Rachel Lindsay
"A graphic memoir about mental illness, medication, health insurance, and all the interactions among them. Portrayals of mental illness are most often created after the fact, from a perspective of comparative stability. What's so striking about Lindsay's debut is the way it captures the frenzy of her bipolar disorder and puts readers within the eye of the hurricane, identifying with her so completely that it becomes impossible to accept easy, black-and-white answers about the nature of her illness and the effectiveness of her treatment." - From Kirkus Reviews
"McDermott, who's worked as a public defender and published in places like This American Life, recounts his experiences with dipolar disorder and how he has been pulled through by his tough, devoted mother. " - From Library Journal
Heart Berries: a memoir, Teresa Marie Mailhot
"Reflections on the turbulent life of a Native American writer... Slim, elegiac, and delivered with an economy of meticulous prose, the book calibrates the author's history as an abused child and an adult constantly at war with the demons of mental illness. An elegant, deeply expressive meditation infused with humanity and grace." - From Kirkus Reviews
We Are the Luckiest: the surprising magic of a sober life, Laura McKowen
"McKowen examines her alcohol addiction in this affecting, heartfelt debut memoir... McKowen’s moving story will be a boon to those seeking help with addiction." - From Publishers Weekly
This Close to Happy: a reckoning with depression, Daphne Merkin
"Merkin’s deeply intimate account of living with clinical depression is illuminating, heartbreaking, and powerfully written. With lively prose and shrewd observations, Merkin examines the contending discourses on the potential causes of depression as she bravely exposes her lifelong struggle with suicidal thoughts and attempts to overcome them." - From Publishers Weekly
The Hilarious World of Depression, John Moe
"The host of the podcast The Hilarious World of Depression offers a moving portrait of what it means to be depressed." - From NoveList Plus
Haldol and Hyacinths: a bipolar life, Melody Moezzi
"Iranian-American activist Melody Moezzi speaks out on behalf of the mentally ill with a bracingly funny and poignant tale of her own suicide attempt, bipolar disorder diagnosis, and reclamation of her life." - From NoveList Plus
Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: depression in the first person, Anna Mehler Paperny
"Journalist Mehler Paperny offers a startling and intimate portrait of her multiple attempts at suicide and digs into the disturbingly inadequate “toolbox” available to individuals suffering from acute depression. This memoir cum cultural study segues between the author’s inexplicable obsession with killing herself (raised in a supportive family, she writes, her depression isn’t connected to an experiential trigger) and a review of medications and other approaches available to those struggling with depression." - From Publishers Weekly
The Edge of Every Day: sketches of schizophrenia, Marin Sardy
"A shape-shifting debut memoir about a family’s coming to terms with schizophrenia—or not.Essayist and critic Sardy delivers an extraordinarily ambitious and accomplished narrative about significant challenges." - From Kirkus Reviews
How to Be Depressed, George Scialabba
"An unusual, searching, and poignant memoir of one man's quest to make sense of depression George Scialabba is a prolific critic and essayist known for his incisive, wide-ranging commentary on literature, philosophy, religion, and politics." - From the publisher
Monkey Mind: a memoir of anxiety, Daniel Smith
"Anxiety is no laughing matter, yet afflicted journalist and editor Smith uses humor (such as his use of maxi pads to stem his profuse armpit sweat) as he explains the excess of thought and emotion also known as “Monkey Mind” in Buddhism." - From Publishers Weekly
Little panic: dispatches from an anxious life, Amanda Stern
"Stern courageously lays open her excruciating experience with 25 years of untreated panic disorder in this brave memoir of mental illness." - From Publishers Weekly
Darkness Visible: a memoir of madness, William Styron
"The author chronicles his descent into depression, discussing not only his own experience and recovery but also how others can find help." - From NoveList Plus
The Collected Schizophrenias: essays, Esmé Weijun Wang
"Presents a collection of evocative essays on mental illness that build on the author's experiences with schizoaffective disorder while examining the vulnerabilities of institutionalization, PTSD, and Lyme disease." - From NoveList Plus
Dear Scarlet: the story of my post-partum depression, Teresa Wong
"A poignant and deeply personal journey through the complexities of new motherhood, offering hope to those affected by postpartum depression, as well as reassurance that they are not alone." - From NoveList Plus