Book recomendation - The Centre Can Not Hold; My journey through madness, by Elyn R. Saks

[NolongerAnxiousCarer]

Professor Elyn R. Saks is a proffessor of psychiatry, psychology and Law in California. She also has schizophrenia. This is a very honest and hard hitting autobiography. In the book she describes the dispair and terror of psychosis in a way that has given me a new insight into DHs experiences. Often her accounts resonate with my experience of DHs psychosis, which was highly emotional, and did not make for easy reading. Her experiences of hospitalisation both voluntarily and under the US equivalent of sectioning are at times grimm and shocking. It certainly makes me glad of our NHS even with its flaws. And yet the overwhelming message is one of hope, that even with severe mental illness people can live happy productive and fulfilling lives with the right support. This book should be compulsory reading for every Dr and mental health proffesional.