Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour

11 reviews

elisegmusic's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

lowbrowhighart's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Car accident, Alcohol, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Miscarriage, Self harm, and Islamophobia

brogan7's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

3.0

I was disappointed in this book because I felt it didn't increase my empathy, it rather decreased it. Intellectually, I could think about empathy for this woman and her story, but in my heart, I didn't feel it as I was reading her story.  A tumbling tale of addiction and problematic relationships, it becomes more and more confusing the deeper you get into it.  For a while the story-following-the-setting works, but by 3/4 of the way through the book, the places all seem interchangeable, as do the men, and the only constancy is that her life is falling apart.
Two things are particularly striking to me about the story: that she never stops to take care of herself, for one moment, and that none of the other people in the book are particularly real.  There is never a time when she goes: oh, I need to do things differently, I'm on too many pills, what I'm doing isn't working.  She goes jumping from one bandwagon to another, looking for a miracle cure, which I understand the desperation for, but also seems, externally, as so evidently a rabbithole.  And the other people in her story, the boyfriends, the friends, the strange connections she makes with people of dubious reliability and care...none of them really strike you, other than perhaps as flashing a million alarm bells.  Even her parents are rather two-dimensional.
It's unfortunate, because these stories are important, but I would recommend Abby Norman's book,  if you're looking for something more analytical, Sonya Huber, if you're looking for more insight and wild beauty; also Julie Devaney, Anna Lyndsey, or Tessa Miller.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, and Addiction

chronicallyplotting's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

1.0

This memoir is about an author who goes through a long struggle with her health and is ultimately diagnosed with end stage lime disease. And her struggles of also being an addict. She goes through what many with a hard to diagnose illness go through and that is medical trauma and being dismissed not only by medical professionals but her peers and family. 
What I could not understand is how the author did not have any personal growth from this or takeaways to help anyone else from her medical journey. It was disheartening that she never fought for herself or advocated for a diagnosis. The author even indicated in her book that she became the patient no doctor or nurse wanted to work with because she was whining all the time for things; she became a person who loved medical attention and wanted to be waited on. She wanted people to care for her and used her friends also. I was hoping for a story of how someone overcame addiction or a medical crises that they had to fight to overcome and get care. Because I personally know the struggle to find good care, but it instead was a book of a person who does not like America but lives here and has a political agenda versus a message about her health journey. She focuses widely on anti-trump rants and Anit-American healthcare rants but offers no solutions to change or how any of it personally impacted her. And it was a person who thinks they are the best author in the world who probably has a tinge of Munchausen disease. 

Being a person of the chronic illness community myself I was so hoping for more of a survival story, even if it doesn't have a happy ending. Instead I got a political platform and a woman who craves attention and anyone who doesn't give it to her must be racist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Racism, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Addiction, Medical content, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexism

shaanzeh1_'s review against another edition

emotional informative reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Drug abuse

Minor: Rape

krys_kilz's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

This book deals with A LOT of heavy topics (tw: suicidal ideation, addiction, medical trauma/gaslighting, toxic relationships), but not in a way that veers towards trauma porn. Instead Khakpour wades through the discomfort and the ableism and the expectation for sick people to remain out of sight and cracks open her pain and messiness and aliveness. She pulls back the facade of certainty and pulls apart the myth that health is stable and within our individual control. And all of this grounded in place and an incredibly engaging voice.

I found parts of the book a bit repetitive at times and the timeline could be a little difficult to follow, but overall I saw so many of my own experiences between these pages and I am so grateful to Khakpour for opening space for sick storytelling.

"At some point I questioned why I had for much of my life leaped from one person to another, with no end in sight. I'm not sure my conclusions are good, but I can tell you when the body feels out of place it will cling to anything that looks like life. Cities. homes. People. Lovers.
Love is the only good way many of us know how to feel alive.
And the ghost I so often was wanted badly to feel real. And the characters in this section can at least tell you I existed. They might not have thought of me much, but they can tell you I was real. Sometimes too real."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Ableism, Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, Car accident, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Miscarriage, Islamophobia, and Self harm

hamstringy's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.0

I don’t know how to feel about this. Maybe that’s the reason to read it. I swung between a hyper aware intimacy with the way Khakpour describes illness and a vague disgruntled apathy at the way I felt she was making the wrong choices. Which, I suppose, is an important thing to catch. Khakpour owes us no zen story of healing, of course, and I think she writes an important messy story that’s more common than people realize.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Car accident, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Miscarriage and Self harm

readalongwithnat's review against another edition

4.0

I feel like this one has been on my TBR for ages and I'm glad I finally read it. The medical gaslighting was a lot; I think abled-bodied folks will be tempted to think this could not happen, but I felt it was so relatable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault and Medical content

mackenziem12's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Ableism, Car accident, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual assault

Minor: Miscarriage

ssreadsintranslation's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Islamophobia, Xenophobia, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse