Opinion of an unquiet mind

I enjoyed reading An Unquiet Mind. It was very interesting learning about the mental illness of manic depression that Kay Jamison had. That topic has always been interesting to me and I love learning more about how they got through their problems and what their life was like. The book was written in two perspectives from the same person which caught my attention. I was able to see two sides of the story and it helped me understand the story. Being able to see how hard life is for some people really opened my eyes. Kay jamison sharing her story i'm aure helped many others with the same problems that she encountered and I would reccomend this book to people.

Lithium

I believe that Kay's desire to rely on lithium began when she went to the psychiatric hospital in high school. She saw the patients, and she was able to understand their pain and know how they were feeling. Then, when she goes to California and drinks vodka before school everyday, that's when it really starts. After that, everything goes downhill. She has her first manic episode and comes to the realization that she has manic depression. It's sad to think about because it must be excruciatingly painful to watch yourself grow more and more familiar with an illness so tragic.

Who is harmed most?

Kay suffered a lot during this book and as a reader it was hard to know exactly how she felt but the book did make me realize that the people around the person with the depression are affected just as much and maybe even more than that person.

The life of moods

When reading this book I was facinated by the fact that people live theirs lives with all these different moods, I think that Kay, the author has felt so many different moods and feelings she was troubled with know who she really was inside

Kay's Life With the Illness

Although, in the end, Kay showed the reader that anything is possible no matter what. It still was extremely difficult for her to go through life with this type of disease and not really knowing whether or not her medication will work somedays. Kay's illness definitely effected some of her personal relationships with others. For example Kay's relationship with David. David and Kay had a very nice relationship but Kay was stuck when she didn't know whether or not to tell David about her illness. It must have been hard for her because she didn't know how she would react to certain situations because of her manic depressive illness. It was definitely hard to keep herself in check when it comes to her illness. But, when she finally told David about her illness a year later it must have made it a lot easier for her to talk to him because she knew that he was now aware of how she may act the reason behind that. It was extremely unfortunate for her to have to go through David's unexpected death. Especially with the added difficulty that her illness brought to the situation.

Kay's illness

Kay Redfield Jamison the author of An Unquiet Mind, shares her own battle with manic depressive illness. She shares the story about her initial denial and then resistance to receive any treatment for this illness. This story opened my eyes to this illness because it gave me an inside look on how hard it is to deal with something as serious as manic depressive illness. I completely admire Kay for her ability to go through something that was as challenging as dealing with this disease. I also admire Kay for "coming out of the closet" with her illness. It is always risky to openly come out with a illness like this. There is always a chance that people won't accept her for who she is and what she is living with. Although the story dragged during some parts I really enjoyed the overall message and really see Kay Redfield Jamison as a role model for those with mental illnesses such as hers.

Visiting the Grave

When Kay first met David, it was obvious that they instantly clicked. I could also tell that it killed her that she could not tell him about her manic depression, but I don't blame her. It must be incredibly difficult to open up to someone about that, especially with the thought in your head that they could respond in a very negative way and never speak to you again. But when David shows up about a year later, and she finally tells him, it brought her much closer to him. Their relationship progresses, but then David dies out of nowhere. It must have  been so hard for her to cope with the fact that an amazing person came around that actually accepted her for who she is, and was, without notice, taken away from her. Visiting his grave couldn't have been easy, and I'm sure it added a lot of weight onto her in addition to everything else that she had going on in her life.