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881 reviews for:
While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
Meg Kissinger
4.28 AVERAGE
881 reviews for:
While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
Meg Kissinger
4.28 AVERAGE
I listened to this as read by the author. I did “enjoy” her book; enjoy even though it was very heavy and heartbreaking in content. Her writing style was very journalistic. I was obvious she is a journalist before knowing. It did appreciate this actually because she put in a lot of work into interviewing her family and finding letters, medical records, etc. As a mental health therapist, I also appreciated her attention to the problems of our mental health systems and asking pertinent questions that still need addressing. Worth a read. I’ll admit though, there were times where it did drag and it could be confusing with who’s who.
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
This book was the selection for my local library book club and they came out swinging with a real heartbreaker for the first selection for our new year. It's the first non-fiction that I can remember us readingnand rife for discussion. It is so raw and sad but well written that you'll read past the point where your heart can take it. I was gripped by her storytelling but eventually had to take a break (see also my review of Kevin Kwan's Lies and Weddings which was my palate cleanser) before finishing it.
The first 2/3 of the book is her memoir where she unflinchingly details the harsh reality of her upbringing and life of her big Catholic family in the 1960s in Wilmette, Illinois. Though to outsiders they seemed a happy family, one of means, over the years they would be fractured and irrevocably broken by tragedy, largely due to undiagnosed and untreated mental health issues (such as bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, paranoia) and the unintended consequences (alcoholism, drug abuse, incarceration, family violence and suicide).
At the end of this part of the book, she explains that due to what her family experienced she spent the next 15 years of her life studying mental health in America and "what I learned shook me to my core." And that is where I needed to step back for a minute and read some Kevin Kwan, because this is a difficult book to experience.
The last third of the book is a mixture of more memoir as she updates us on the lives of her family up to the present, while at the same time sharing intimate details of her research, other mothers and fathers and siblings desperate to find help for their loved ones in a truly broken and in many places neglectful system of care.
Ultimately this is a story of resilience in the face of great difficulty and what we can, and cannot, do to support and save those we love from their own demons.
The first 2/3 of the book is her memoir where she unflinchingly details the harsh reality of her upbringing and life of her big Catholic family in the 1960s in Wilmette, Illinois. Though to outsiders they seemed a happy family, one of means, over the years they would be fractured and irrevocably broken by tragedy, largely due to undiagnosed and untreated mental health issues (such as bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, paranoia) and the unintended consequences (alcoholism, drug abuse, incarceration, family violence and suicide).
At the end of this part of the book, she explains that due to what her family experienced she spent the next 15 years of her life studying mental health in America and "what I learned shook me to my core." And that is where I needed to step back for a minute and read some Kevin Kwan, because this is a difficult book to experience.
The last third of the book is a mixture of more memoir as she updates us on the lives of her family up to the present, while at the same time sharing intimate details of her research, other mothers and fathers and siblings desperate to find help for their loved ones in a truly broken and in many places neglectful system of care.
Ultimately this is a story of resilience in the face of great difficulty and what we can, and cannot, do to support and save those we love from their own demons.
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced