Mental Illness

About the Book

The person hospitalized for a mental illness for the first time is usually bewildered, frightened and appalled. The admission process to a psychiatric unit is both intimate and disturbing. The first part of this book explains what the person can expect to happen, the reasons for the various procedures, and how they are likely to feel. This is intended to make the process less alarming, and let this person know that he or she is not alone. Later chapters discuss the issues of recovery and discharge, and the final chapter is devoted to coping mechanisms which the person can develope after the hospitalization.

The various sections of the book are written so as to take into account the particular difficulties of each stage of the illness. So the first chapter is written very simply because it is very hard to concentrate on reading when the symptoms are acute. The later chapters contain more lengthy passages, intended for when the person has started to recover.

Mental illness still carries with it a stigma in our society. So even after the person has recovered, there are likely to be difficulties arising from having been in a psychiatric unit. The implications of this are discussed, and some possible solutions are offered.

About the Author

Virginia Wilson trained as a biochemist in Britain, although now she is occupied with writing. She has spent time in four psychiatric units, two in Canada, and two in the United States. As a result of these experiences, she developed an interest in public education about the problems of the mentally ill, and completed the manuscript of "Mental Illness: Survival and Beyond" in 1997. She works for the Canadian Mental Health Association (Metro Toronto Division) as a public speaker on behalf of the mentally ill, and visits psychiatric inpatients with her Therapy Dog, Ben.

She has studied creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Toronto, and is now attempting her first novel.