Book Review
Mood Disorders
We Fly, We Cry: Our Lives With Manic Depression. . BettyAnne Sakals. Vernon (BC): Lazuli Press; 2001. 231 p. CAN$16.00.
Reviewer
rating*: Good
Review by Paul Grof, MD, FRCPC
Ottawa, Ontario
Patients often ask us to recommend books that will help them better understand
their predicament. You might consider recommending this collection to those
suffering from various abnormal moods.
This book offers a glimpse into the inner feelings of patients suffering
from common and often intense abnormal moods. Many patients—particularly,
early in their illness—suffer from strong feelings of isolation and a belief
that extreme experiences of this kind could only happen to them. The stigma
still associated with mental illness reinforces such emotions. This author
weaves her own experiences together with accounts from 2 dozen members
of a support group she attended. Along the way, she interweaves some basic
information about manic-depressive illness. She describes how alone she
had felt in facing the challenges of her mental illness, and she hopes
her first-hand accounts will offer solace to others facing similar pain.
Patients often find it very liberating to learn that they are not alone
with their predicament.
The participating patients share their experiences of high and low moods,
of hallucinations and delusions, and of treatments and hospitalizations.
Many confirm the value of a support group. Partners and parents speak out
about the challenges they faced.
The book will be valuable for patients or relatives who are interested
in obtaining some initial information and an intimate feeling for mood
problems. To maintain the colour and authenticity of experiences, observations,
and insights shared by people who live daily with these disorders, the
author put a great deal of effort into reporting interviews verbatim. Attempting
to maintain the original flavour, however, she has produced a documentary
of experiences, rather than carefully edited information for sufferers.
While her subjects share abnormal moods and a support group, it is also
clear that most are experiencing various other psychiatric problems in
addition to their bipolar states.
Overall, the book may usefully contribute to education about the illness,
used in conjunction with other basic texts. I have given it to several
patients with recently diagnosed bipolar disorders, and their evaluation
of the book paralleled mine.
*Reviewer
Rating Scale/ Échelle d’évaluation du réviseur
Excellent / Excellent
Very Good / Très bon
Good / Bon
Fair / Passable
Not recommended / Pas recommandé
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