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Hello! I want to die, please fix me : depression in the first person / by Paperny, Anna Mehler,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Frank, eye-opening, heartbreaking and disarmingly funny, Anna Mehler Paperny is a fabulous, vibrant new voice. In her galvanizing memoir-meets-exposé, writing with riveting vitality and intelligence about surviving suicide and the ways we try to talk about and treat depression, she has discovered what eludes many: a way to reach out to us to talk about one of the increasingly concerning medical issues today. An energetic tour-de-force of empathy and desire for understanding, Hello! I Want to Die, Please Fix Me is compelling reading, as well as essential for anyone curious to understand how it feels to be depressed, or whose life, family or friends has been touched by depression. Anna Mehler Paperny is a young journalist from Toronto--a smart, passionate reporter who has contributed to the Toronto Star, Global News, The Globe and Mail, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and just about every major news outlet you can think of. In her early-twenties, while thriving in her dream job, enjoying warm familial support and a strong social network of friends and colleagues, Anna found herself trapped by feelings of failure and despair. In September 2011, she made her first attempt to kill herself by ingesting a deadly mix of sleeping pills and antifreeze, landing her in the ICU followed by weeks of enforced detention in two different big-city psych wards. This was Anna's entry point into the labyrinthine psychiatric care system--one that is nominally responsible for providing the best reasonable care to millions of Canadians suffering from severe, life-threatening mental illness. Her first stay in the psych ward--at times horrifying, other times boring, hilarious and absurd--was just the beginning of a long recovery and a journey towards understanding, first-hand, the myriad ways our systems and medical practitioners treat--and fail to treat--a disease that afflicts a full fifth of the population. While trying to be a good patient, Anna cannot help but turn her intrepid journalist's eye on the world around her--in the psych ward, as an outpatient, as a survivor enduring the gruelling ordeal of facing concerned family, friends and co-workers; of finding the right meds, the right therapist; of staying insured and employed. Anna's personal account of life in the shadow of self-obliteration explores in searing detail her individual experience of depression, close encounters with fatal self-harm, and the trials and errors of treatment. It is at the same time an illuminating, profound, and utterly original analysis of how we approach mental illness in North America; the novel hypotheses specialists are putting forward to tackle it; and the truth about how primitive our methods of healing sick brains still are."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Paperny, Anna Mehler.; Paperny, Anna Mehler; Mental health services; Depressed persons; Depressed persons; Depression, Mental; Journalists; Depressed persons;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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My mess is a bit of a life : adventures in anxiety / by Pritchett, Georgia,author.;
"When Georgia Pritchett found herself lost for words - a bit of a predicament for a comedy writer - she booked an appointment with a therapist, who suggested that she try writing down some of the things that worried her. The therapist probably meant a light, mid-week grocery-list's worth of worries. Instead, Georgia wrote this book. From fretting about the monsters under her bed as a child (Were they comfy enough?) to agonizing about making too much of a fuss during childbirth ("Sorry to interrupt, but the baby is coming out of my body," I said politely) to being offered free gifts after an award ceremony (It was an excruciating experience. Mortifying), worry has accompanied her at every turn. With the levity of a package of potato chips and a healthy dose of self-deprecation, Georgia Pritchett guides readers from her anxiety-ridden early childhood, where disaster was around every corner (When I was little I used to think that sheep were clouds that had fallen to earth. On cloudy days I used to worry that I would be squashed by a sheep), through the challenges of breaking into a male-dominated TV writing industry, as well as the inevitable ups and downs of raising children. Honest, brave, and joyful, My Mess Is a Bit of a Life is a necessary reflection on how to live - and sometimes even thrive - with anxiety"--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Pritchett, Georgia.; Anxiety; Television writers; Women television writers;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Shy creatures : a novel / by Chambers, Clare,author.;
"The London suburb of Croydon, 1964: Helen Hansford is unmarried and in her thirties. Something of a disappointment to her middle-class parents, she's an art therapist at the Westbury Park psychiatric hospital, where she has been having a rebellious love affair with her colleague Gil, a dashing but married doctor. One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance at a derelict, vine-covered Victorian house a few miles up the road. There the police find a mute, thirty-seven-year-old man called William Tapping, his hair and beard down to his waist. It appears he lives in the old house with his elderly, frail aunt, who expires as soon as she's admitted to the hospital. No one knows why William has been shut away for decades, unseen by neighbors, with only his two now-deceased aunts for company. Westbury Park becomes his refuge. When it emerges that William is not only sane but a talented artist, Helen comes to see him as something of a personal project. But as she tries to solve the puzzle of the Hidden Man's past, Helen's own carefully constructed life of secrets begins to unravel ... "--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Bildungsromans.; Novels.; Adultery; Art teachers; Artists; Man-woman relationships; Psychiatric hospital patients; Psychiatric hospitals; Secrecy; Social isolation;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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