Blog #7: Topic of Mental Health

I think it’s obvious by now to anyone that reads my writings that I focus heavily on the topic of Mental Health. This is an important subject, personally, to me. There needs to be more fiction, non-fiction, and just all genres of writing about mental health. 

      I wrote Gone Tree about being in a mental health facility, and based the staff characters off of how I perceived the staff during my visits. A little bit of it was exaggerated, but overall the staff always seem inhuman and robotic. I actually came up with the idea for my book during one of my hospital stays. 

       My set of short essays about mental health, this was inspired by a set of essays a family member of mine wrote, talking about moments in her life. I was very inspired, and decided to do my own set of essays, but focusing on the mental health system. I don’t think many people know how hard it is to get mental health help, and how expensive it can be even with insurance. So my goal was to shed light on at least one person’s experience, and shed some of the stigma around it.

     So to end this post I wanted to list some great mental health books, some being fiction and some being memoirs:

1. Winter Girls: This is a great fiction book that covers the topic of girls and eating disorders. It also covers the topic of loss, and how people deal with that loss. It takes you through the main character’s journey of how they got where they’re at, and how they get to a better space. Though a lot of that also is covered in her dealing with loss. 10/10 would recommend.
2. Girl, Interrupted: I absolutely LOVE this book. It’s a non-fiction, memoir, about a woman’s experience with mental health and being in a two year long treatment center. Each chapter is more of a stand alone, and talks about other people at the hospital, activities they did, and her own healing process. If you loved the movie, you’ll love the book even more!
3. Autobiography of a Face: This memoir is mainly about a girl that gets cancer in her jaw, and her journey with cancer and having half of her jaw missing and it deforming her face. But with this comes her talking about being depressed and anxious. How she finds relationships with men that she keeps shallow, and about sex, to protect herself and her emotions. While it’s mostly a memoir about her cancer, I think its underlying theme of depression and self loathing is important too. Good read!
4. Prozac Nation: I just started this book, so I don’t have too much to say. But so far it just dives you right into the woman’s episodes. I’m excited to see where it goes!

     Signing Off,

     Fenisha Estes