I just finished reading Unshrunk, despite my earlier comment that I probably wouldn't. I also find the strength of the book to be Laura telling her story and not the drug info bits and psych history bits. I kind of skimmed through those. I wonder how many other readers will. I'm a psych patient who started out as a teenager. I've had som…
I just finished reading Unshrunk, despite my earlier comment that I probably wouldn't. I also find the strength of the book to be Laura telling her story and not the drug info bits and psych history bits. I kind of skimmed through those. I wonder how many other readers will. I'm a psych patient who started out as a teenager. I've had somewhere around 60 psych unit stays, dealt with anorexia, OCD, self-harm. I'd take breaks from psych treatment then go back. 6 years ago I thought I was done after a psychiatrist stopped mulitple meds at once without taper. I spent time with the hate psychiatry, never go back, meds will sicken you if they don't kill you crowd. I say all that to qualify both my interest and competence in reviewing Unshrunk just a bit here myself. Laura expounds on what if I'd been told this or not had this done in treatment, would I have thrived instead? Speaking for myself, I have those thoughts and my answer is no, maybe I could've done better, but as a teenager, private, feeling weird, lacking clear goals, seeing college and expectations on the horizon, no I couldn't have been reached in that way. And the withdrawal I experienced being yanked off meds was horrid, but after a year I was like, oh, c'mon, it's not withdrawal now. What was it? I left myself open. And I intend to stay open around treatment, which I'm back with now. I had years and years of questionable treatment and adverse effects and crap therapy. Happy to see that we as a society, and with progressive psychiatrists having entered the field, are seeing less of that. And, sorry Laura, but you are anti-psychiatry. At least now. There's also this pattern I see reading the book of her latching on with great excitement to this or that, and that includes her awakening when she read Whitaker's Anatomy of an Epidemic, and I wonder if one day she'll wake up not so charmed by what she sees as the be-all-end-all right now. Toward the end of the book it was like I was reading every anti-psych tweet I had in my angry days and found myself skimming through that old news too. I was left still appreciating Laura telling her story and feeling kinship around parts so similar to my own. But I hope she's not viewing her book as some way to revolutionize like she did as a peer support specialist or as an advert for services to get off meds such as she currently provides.
I just finished reading Unshrunk, despite my earlier comment that I probably wouldn't. I also find the strength of the book to be Laura telling her story and not the drug info bits and psych history bits. I kind of skimmed through those. I wonder how many other readers will. I'm a psych patient who started out as a teenager. I've had somewhere around 60 psych unit stays, dealt with anorexia, OCD, self-harm. I'd take breaks from psych treatment then go back. 6 years ago I thought I was done after a psychiatrist stopped mulitple meds at once without taper. I spent time with the hate psychiatry, never go back, meds will sicken you if they don't kill you crowd. I say all that to qualify both my interest and competence in reviewing Unshrunk just a bit here myself. Laura expounds on what if I'd been told this or not had this done in treatment, would I have thrived instead? Speaking for myself, I have those thoughts and my answer is no, maybe I could've done better, but as a teenager, private, feeling weird, lacking clear goals, seeing college and expectations on the horizon, no I couldn't have been reached in that way. And the withdrawal I experienced being yanked off meds was horrid, but after a year I was like, oh, c'mon, it's not withdrawal now. What was it? I left myself open. And I intend to stay open around treatment, which I'm back with now. I had years and years of questionable treatment and adverse effects and crap therapy. Happy to see that we as a society, and with progressive psychiatrists having entered the field, are seeing less of that. And, sorry Laura, but you are anti-psychiatry. At least now. There's also this pattern I see reading the book of her latching on with great excitement to this or that, and that includes her awakening when she read Whitaker's Anatomy of an Epidemic, and I wonder if one day she'll wake up not so charmed by what she sees as the be-all-end-all right now. Toward the end of the book it was like I was reading every anti-psych tweet I had in my angry days and found myself skimming through that old news too. I was left still appreciating Laura telling her story and feeling kinship around parts so similar to my own. But I hope she's not viewing her book as some way to revolutionize like she did as a peer support specialist or as an advert for services to get off meds such as she currently provides.
Wise words, Lisa