This month in April of 2022, the book club discussed a book called Fix What You Can, by Mindy Greiling. The memoir explored a mother and father going to battle for their son. In the book, there were topics of lack of help for the younger person living with a mental illness who hadn’t committed a crime and didn’t want help. There were also issues from medication changes to legal issues and drug use due to a mental illness. Mindy Greiling was with us at the session. She discussed her writing process and what it took to write the story. She wrote about her son Jim in the book. Mindy said, “Writing is a release.” The story surrounds her son dealing with the struggles of having his life turned upside down from hearing voices and dealing with appointments, different medications and their side effects, and law enforcement. Mindy said, "its hard to get help for someone unless they are breaking the law or older." With her son, Jim, being young, it was hard to get him help. In the book, Jim dealt with bad relationships, and it is common in the lives of people living with mental illnesses to be taken advantage of and being vulnerable. The media associates people with mental illnesses as perpetrators. Members of the discussion discussed trials with mental illnesses and hospitals. One of the discussion participants identified with Jim and is going to have his mother read the book to help her deal with her isolation. Mindy discussed how her son was sent to mental illness court because he caused damage at a hospital. Mindy’s son was charged with damage at a hospital without his knowing it. The final discussion topic was that of teenagers with mental illnesses getting the help that they need. A mother of a fifteen-year-old was in the group. He is on medication, which to her is bitter-sweet. Bitter, because he needs medication, but sweet because he may get used to asking for help when he isn’t living in the home anymore. Please join us for the next NAMI Ramsey Book Club! Find more information at https://www.namiramseycounty.org/bookclub.html This month, the Book Club read Dr. Birds Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos. In this book, James Whitman finds himself overcome with suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, mania, and family issues such as abuse and his sister’s self-injurious behavior. The book is written for older teens, and it poses questions such as if you feel yourself struggling, would you feel comfortable reaching out? In the book club discussion, there was talk about how the teens were seen as more resourceful than the adults, as James was able to find therapy on his own to deal with the issues he was experiencing. James also found himself in an investigation about his sister Jorie’s expulsion from school. You could see James’s getting stronger and more vocal as the story went on. James finds inspiration from Walt Whitman, and sometimes uses the famous author's writing to sum up his own thoughts, such as, Dazzling and tremendous how quick the sun-rise Would kill me If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of Me Please join us for the next NAMI Ramsey Book Club! Find more information at https://www.namiramseycounty.org/bookclub.html This month’s book club featured a wonderful Zoom discussion about a book called Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman. The book is about a teenage boy who begins to exhibit odd behaviors. The story walks the reader through the initial onset of his symptoms, with an emphasis on his thoughts and reactions and the responses of his friends and family. The author jumps between the boy’s real life experience and a story about a pirate and his crew. As the book continues, the reader picks up on the connection between these two narratives and realizes the author’s purpose for writing in this way. In our group discussion, we all agreed that the book was initially difficult to read because of the jump between the two stories and not knowing how they fit together. However, as we got deeper into the book, it became clear that the author wanted us to also experience the distress and confusion of the main character’s behaviors and thinking. It helped us understand a small piece of what individuals with this type of mental illness (I won’t share more details and risk spoiling part of the book) experience, especially when symptoms are first starting. Many of us discussed our own experiences with mental illness and how we relate to the feelings sparked by the author and the book. Overall, this was a very uniquely written book that illuminated aspects of mental illness in new ways. It sparked a great discussion about severe mental illness and allowed the reader to grab onto different aspects of the main character’s experience. Please join us for our next Ramsey County Book Club! Find more information at: https://www.namiramseycounty.org/bookclub.html In January, six of us gathered together over zoom to discuss the book Checking In by Michelle Williams. In the book, Michelle Williams, Grammy Award winner and most famous for her membership in Destiny’s Child, describes her decade long battle with depression and anxiety. The book description begins with “I need help.” She very vulnerably describes her lowest point, when she found herself planning her own funeral, and her process seeking professional help. Throughout this journey, she often describes the importance of “checking in” with herself, God, and others. During our group’s discussion, we talked about how Ms. Williams very openly discusses her journey recognizing depression, struggling with low points, recovery, and now working to maintain her own health. A few helpful quotes from the book we discussed include:
Ms. William’s process of checking in was insightful and built on her experiences over the last decade. When she was depressed and her fiancé would offer to help her with tasks at home, she interpreted it as an insult. Reflecting, she said “depression [was] changing everything to lies.” (p. 123). However, “When we’re checking in with ourselves, we can root out the beliefs behind our thoughts and the thoughts behind our emotions.” (p. 34) On page 77, she describes her check in process: “Just choose one situation with one person” and ask:
Ms. Williams also makes an interesting distinction between transparency and vulnerability. With transparency, “there’s still a little bit of control…I don’t risk anything when I respond that way.” However, with vulnerability, we are “offering the truth freely…you don’t have that kind of control, sometimes it’s not pretty.” (p. 172-173). However, her overall point is that vulnerability allows more for freedom to exist and acknowledge our own struggles. It means being truly open about what is going on in our lives and minds which can ultimately promote better understanding of ourselves, and hopefully, greater healing. Finally, a large part of Ms. Williams life and overall healing process was rooted in her Christian faith. She focuses a lot on the downfalls of holding grudges and not forgiving ourselves or others. She states:
Please join us for our next Ramsey County Book Club! Find more information at: https://www.namiramseycounty.org/bookclub.html
Author: Mindy Greiling, board presidentMindy was a state representative for 20 years, served on state and national NAMI boards, and is the author of Fix What You Can, a book about her legislative work and her family's story about her son's schizo-affective disorder. |
Details
Archives
February 2024
Categories
All
Sign up for our monthly newsletter for blog updates! |