She's Come Undone

I believe a big truth in the novel She's Come Undone is that through many tragic circumstances, Dolores lost her sense of identity. It shocked me when all of a sudden she was sent to a mental institution for 7 years. There didn't seem to be anything mentally wrong with her, she was just completely lost in grief and misunderstanding of the things that had happened to her. If she had a better support system, such as a stable family or close friends, maybe she wouldn't have struggled so much with the tragedies thrown at her. She turned to food to comfort herself and because of that lost her self-confidence and because of that felt she was not capable of being loved. It was a downward spiral for her. We see at the end though that she slowly begins finding herself again. She allows herself to grow close to Thayer. I interpreted the ending scene as one of her accepting her new life, finally becoming maybe not happy but content. It demonstrated how the little things are the most spectacular. Dolores grew to appreciate that, and that was one more baby step towards her becoming well again.

The Lovely Bones

Reading The Lovely Bones gives insight into mental illness/psychological problems because George Harvey is a very troubled man. There is a no way a mentally healthy person would ever commit the crimes that he did. Sebold clues us into his struggles by revealing bits of his past, with a klepto mother and abusive father. I didn't really view him as a mentally ill character in the sense of having a disease such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. I saw him more as someone who couldn't cope with difficulties in life as well as others, therefore triggering a lot of impulses and uncontrollable behavior. I believe that the character of George Harvey, if raised in a different setting, would not have become the terrible person that he did. Before reading this, I never thought or really knew anything about serial killers. I mean I'm a big fan of scary movies, and they tend to feature completely exaggerated serial killers in them, but I never connected that to real life because of the theatrics and drama that is used in movies. But maybe these characters are more real than I thought, they might not be stalking people in the woods or using chainsaws, but at the end of the day there are real people out there who have killed many others. After reading this book, that's when I realized they are more alike the typical person than expected. They make a point to blend in, not draw any attention to themselves, and even gain a little sympathy so that people will think 'oh there is no way they are the criminal'. The scariest part is that they can actually be extremely intelligent and skilled at manipulating others emotions and covering their tracks, so no one will ever know. I'm not quite sure what can be done to reach out to people before they choose to murder someone. Unless someone just comes out and says their intentions, it can never be guessed what would set an individual off. Everybody has triggers that sends them over the edge, and while more typically that 'edge' causes them to self-harm (alcohol, drugs, etc.) apparently it drives some to kill. Essentially I think anybody in a high-risk situation (meaning a lot of family issues, victim of a traumatic experience, or anything else) should just be supported and provided with help so that there problems don't spiral into something that creates a George Harvey. Reading this book doesn't really change what I believe about the human condition. It doesn't make me lose hope in humanity or lose trust. People can experience plenty of hardship and struggle and still most will not turn out how George Harvey did. As I said before, I think it is more of an underlying personality flaw, an inability to cope, that killers have. They could be perfectly fine but once triggered turn into a vicious, violent person. The one last point I would like to make about this book is that while reading it, I gradually got a more eerie, chilling feeling from it and I wondered why the story sounded so familiar. Then I remembered something that occurred in a town just north of me. In 2009, a 5-year-old girl was kidnapped from the front lawn of her apartment and later, her body was found under some concrete on the bank of the River Raisin, with dirt in her lungs. It made reading this book much more emotional realizing that a tragic fictional read could be related to something that happened so close by. It also was a scary reminder that killers really do exist in the world, and sometimes not so far away.

The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian

For some reason while reading this book I actually forgot the focus of our class so far has been mental illness. I was much more wrapped up in the cultural/identity aspect of the story. This is probably because when I think of mental illness, I associate it with the 'big' obvious things: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc. Alexie made a point to show how much alcoholism was a part of the Indian culture, but this becomes a mental illness in itself. Addicts experience a change in brain chemistry just as any other person with an illness does. People can be more predisposed to it than others too. It tends to get a bad stigma because it comes across as a choice, but people do not choose to get addicted. Reading this novel definitely opened my eyes to this. For the most part everyone seemed like good people, they were just suffering from a illness that had become epidemic among them. With each generation that depended on alcohol, it became even harder for the next to deny it.

The Quiet Room

I think this book was very unique from any other books I would typically read in class or for fun because of the various perspectives. At the beginning of the book when the chapter switched from Lori Schiller's point of view to Lori Winter's point of view, I had to go back and re read because I hadn't noticed the transition. It was then that I became really intrigued. Normally books- whether fiction or non-fiction- like to paint a good guy and a bad guy, and remain very biased to one side. This book was a raw view at the opinions and thought process of both sides. It frustrated me reading what her friends thought about her when they didn't understand what was going on, and I believe that was the purpose of this piece. It makes you realize that everybody is going through something even if they appear alright on the surface, and that can apply not only to mental illness but all other sorts of troubles. It builds sympathy instead of making people dismissive to the struggles of others. I would definitely recommend this book to friends. Reading it is a learning experience, and a very interested one at that. I personally love hearing other people's stories about their life experiences and travels, and reading this book is like an adventure but through someone else's mind. I think for anybody who doesn't quite understand mental illness this book would really open their mind and eyes to the reality of it, while showing them that these people are not 'crazy', their mind just works differently.

Mental Illness

Sitting down to write this, I didn't expect it to be that difficult. Mental illness is a hot topic these days- spread throughout the media, movies, and books as people push for a better understanding. But it hit me that although I have heard much about it, there is really not much that I actually know. The very little knowledge I do have came from a psychology class my sophomore year of high school. It made me realize that the stigma associated with mental illness is very real. When it comes to physical illness, it is taught starting in elementary school and everyone has a general idea of how to stay healthy. Mental illnesses are hidden away and often not taken seriously when they do arise. I do believe that society is becoming more accepting of them with awareness. Movies, for example, are more sensitive to mental illness and show things from the perspective of the person dealing with the illness. Older movies tend to paint anyone with a mental illness as the 'crazy' one. Another example happened within the last few years at Cedar Point. They had a musical show called 'Edge of Madness: Still Crazy' that they then changed to 'Edge of Madness: Six Feet Under' after the National Alliance on Mental Illness said it was perpetuating a stereotype. I think the poems by Kaitlyn Tramp do a good job of revealing what is going on inside the mind of a person with mental illness. It allows people to see that they are not different, they are just dealing with battles that not everyone has to face. Her side notes also proved that illnesses don't have to permanent. If someone gets the care they need, they will slowly gain the strength they need to fight it and finally be free.