Books that have changed our lives

Madness: A Memoir is really impressive, by a dr in Melbourne who has schizophenia.

Mental health Recovery Heros. Past and present. reading it now but me thinks it's foreign so pretend I haven't written it.

My most favourite book in Australia is "tell me Im here,' by Anne Devenson.

It's the story of her treasured son who was diagnosed with a mental illness. What a beautiful, beautiful man.

She wrote of the life he led Me thinks on the early 80s, late 70's. I found it hard to put the book down. She worked as a film producer, or made the films....... in her work she was filming a film on mental health and she tracked down well known characters in the field of mental health for the years that her son was alive......dunno how she did this but she tracked down Donald Laing, a well known mental health psychotherapist in London and interviewed him.

But all in all it's a novel about the journey her son went through in the late 70s to early 80s.

yeah I love that one too! frowny face when I saw criteria was recent

Frowny face too when I saw that the criteria is A), B), and part of C).

Although I realise that it is for SANE Australia's suggestions for its Book of the Year.

Every-one in our world should read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

A non-fiction book written by Susan Cain, published in 2012.

One of my favourites (regrettably not Australian and not recent) is 'Nothing' by Paul Morley.

Guardian article, 2000

Morley is better known as a music journalist, but this is a memoir of his youth, his father, his search for meaning, and all of that in the context of the music that he wrote about, particularly and most poingnantly Joy Division.

It's a superb book, even though it's not a happy book and I'm sure an editor never got near it. It's written in a truly idiosyncratic voice. It's very personal. It could have only been done in an idiosyncratic way.

Yes! I will read it this time when I borrow it

I am getting annoyed with myself (and maybe others are getting annoyed with me too), because I am writing, not all, but maybe too many, posts about ME. I have been told, too often, that I am "a bit much."

And I know I can be, so I try to reign it in when I am 'Mindful'. I can't excuse this 'muchness,' on my 'illness,' because, as I am getting 'better,' I am beginning to realise that I am actually me.

When I told my Personal Helper and Mentor today that I was worried that I was having too much fun (an indicator of mania), she said that she thought that I was just confused, because (at XX years of age), I've never been happy before, and that I should just get used to it.

But.,.40 years ago I used to wait, very impatiently every week, for my (3 month old, air-lifted) copy of New Musical Express. I loved reading Paul Morley, Tony Parsons, and Julie Burchill. I was the only...Punk Rocker, I suppose in my small, rural, South Australian town...and in some respects, I still am, but I like old rockabilly these days. I just think it's a bit more becoming for a gentleman of a certain age. It's still Rebel music, but a lot less serious, and mostly slower, so easier to play.

Anyway, that's enough about me. How are you? (And thanks for the memories).

HI JubileeJohnson

the fact that you show awareness at all is important, the difference from others who may be self absorbed.

I have noticed your contributions, and they are welcomed here, so please keep them coming.

Happiness is an under studied emotion dont you think?

Writing about happiness . . . reminds me about Kay Jamison's EXUBERANCE, another fantastic book!