Dear Psychosis

“A story of resilience Wow! This book is a true story about Sarah‘s daughter Alice, and their family’s quest to save her from the brink when she experiences a life-threatening and debilitating mental illness. Wow, this book is a narrative nonfiction, it reads as well as a story and I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn’t fiction. The story starts in Istanbul, where Alice is on holiday. This is where her symptoms began. while the story includes perspectives of Alice herself, as well as her brother Jesse, our main narrator is her mom and the true hero of the story, Sarah. Of course, if you ask Sarah, she would say Alice is the hero of the story, because that’s just the kind of mom she is. If every person experiencing mental illness had a mom like Sarah, the world would be so much better for it. Throughout the book, we are given Alice’s perspective on the events that unfolded. She talks in great detail about the delusions and the voices she heard. So often we see people suffering from mental illness on the streets and it’s easy to look the other way. Reading the perspective of someone who has been through these episodes has given me greater empathy for what these people experience. My favorite part of this book was the epilogue, where Sarah summarizes what she felt they did well, and could have done better in hindsight. This book is a must read for anyone working with psychiatric patients, the families of psychiatric patients, and families of teenagers and young adults. This book can be a tool when having conversations about the long-term effects drugs can have on the brain, and the importance of being open about mental health challenges as they occur instead of hiding them.”