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867 reviews for:
While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
Meg Kissinger
4.28 AVERAGE
867 reviews for:
While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
Meg Kissinger
4.28 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
The author has a way of telling her family’s heart wrenching story with hope and humor.
This book was healing for me and I really immersed myself in Megs family. The author speaks about suicide in a way that resonates with me, anger, frustration, guilt and sadness. I adore that she spoke so frankly about seeing the whole story and not just the act of the suicide.
“No doubt my mother was upset that day, having just watched Nancy try to kill herself again. How many times had Nancy attempted suicide at that point? Ten? Eleven? We’d lost count. My mother had no way to know whether Nancy really meant to kill herself by swallowing those pills. Was she taking a risk by leaving the house later that day? Absolutely. But I see now why she felt that she couldn’t keep putting her obligations on hold to monitor Nancy 24-7. She needed to take care of herself, run her errands, even get her hair done, if that’s where she was that afternoon. Such a seemingly reckless decision should not be considered in a vacuum.The empty vodka bottles that my mother stashed in the back of her closet in the year after Nancy died are testimony to how guilty she must have felt about leaving that day. I couldn’t judge her any harsher than she’d already judged herself.”
Excerpt From
While You Were Out
Meg Kissinger
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
This book is long and detailed, written like a report sometimes just factual. I listened to parts of the audiobook and enjoyed the author’s narration as well.
“No doubt my mother was upset that day, having just watched Nancy try to kill herself again. How many times had Nancy attempted suicide at that point? Ten? Eleven? We’d lost count. My mother had no way to know whether Nancy really meant to kill herself by swallowing those pills. Was she taking a risk by leaving the house later that day? Absolutely. But I see now why she felt that she couldn’t keep putting her obligations on hold to monitor Nancy 24-7. She needed to take care of herself, run her errands, even get her hair done, if that’s where she was that afternoon. Such a seemingly reckless decision should not be considered in a vacuum.The empty vodka bottles that my mother stashed in the back of her closet in the year after Nancy died are testimony to how guilty she must have felt about leaving that day. I couldn’t judge her any harsher than she’d already judged herself.”
Excerpt From
While You Were Out
Meg Kissinger
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
This book is long and detailed, written like a report sometimes just factual. I listened to parts of the audiobook and enjoyed the author’s narration as well.
Sad story about a large Catholic family in the 60’s dealing with mental health and addiction issues told from the daughter’s perspective. She is a journalist fighting to shine a light on inadequacies in treatment. The timeline was hard to follow as some of the stories circled back, and it started to get repetitive. Overall I’m glad I read it and it is good to know that at least the topic is becoming less taboo, and many people can relate.
reflective
A tragic and poignant story about a family’s struggles with mental illness intersected with a discussion about the way the system has let us all down and how reform is so desperately needed.
This is a great book and especially good as a book club read. It's always interesting to see how other people were raised and the situations they've experienced.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective