she doesn't blame biology or bad family situations - she just realizes that if she wants her life, she's going to have to make some changes. she has this illness, and she finds she can't ignore it any longer. She doesn't paint herself as a victim either, which was my main problem with Prozac Nation. that you could recover from the depths and haul yourself out. because i want a professional career, i want to be well respected in my field - and jamieson proved that it was possible. i'll admit, i was in the depths of a serious depressive episode, so perhaps it meant more to me then, but the book gave me hope. (hence i remember the date i read it so well.) it was recommended by a psychiatrist i really respect, and. Those things aside, this book came to me at a very important time in my life. she really kind of put herself on the line for this, and i have to respect that. it does a lot to irradicate the stigma against mental illness, and no doubt she met people in academia who had read her book but never met her, and formed opinions that might be less than true. I also want to say how brave it was for her to write this under her own name. it's more of a - look, she was wildly successful, and dealing with this illness, and she finally came to terms with it, and now she's okay - and still wildly successful. I just want to say, that for a person suffering from mental illness, the fact that you know jamieson's full CV and her academic struggles is important. It will never end, for madness carves its own reality.I was reading some reviews of the book written by people that disliked this. Everything previously moving with the grain is now against- you are irritable, angry, frightened, uncontrollable, and enmeshed totally in the blackest caves of the mind. Humor and absorption on friends' faces are replaced by fear and concern. The fast ideas are far too fast, and there are far too many overwhelming confusion replaces clarity. Feelings of ease, intensity, power, well-being, financial omnipotence, and euphoria pervade one's marrow.

Sensuality is pervasive and the desire to seduce and be seduced irresistible. There are interests found in uninteresting people. Shyness goes, the right words and gestures are suddenly there, the power to captivate others a felt certainty. The ideas and feelings are fast and frequent like shooting stars, and you follow them until you find better and brighter ones.

“There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror involved in this kind of madness.

An unquiet mind review