Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin

Great insight into the mental health system in America

This book provided insight into mental health treatment in the US in a innovative way. The author, who has suffered with depression, decides to conduct a year long research project to compare treatment from three very different facilities. Her results are interesting and at times surprising. She finds as she conducts her research that she is slipping back into a depressed state and her honestly in describing her demons is excrutiating. You will find yourself hoping for the author's return to wellness while at the same time feeling thankful for her story. Its a very easy book to read and her story is compelling. She gives a voice to the millions of people suffering from mental illness and educates those who are not.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

A huge disappointment

I'm not sure what I expected from this book. Probably more of a personal journey through mental hospitals/care facilities, but I didn't find it here. Reads more like a doctor's report. Boring. I read about halfway through and gave up. Don't bother.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A View of Madness

I found this book was incredibly interesting. I had always wondered what it was really like in the loony bin and this author gave several great personal experiences about exactly what it was like and posed those views from different places. It was VERY insightful and I highly recommend it to others.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is such a worthwhile book!

Norah Vncent is no stranger to mental illness or the institues and doctors who treat it. After a particularly harrowing experience she decides to check herself in to three different facilities and write about what she finds. She goes into the project with a clear idea of the injustice and drug abuse she expects to find, but a curious emotional detachment given her past experiences. Early on her suspicions are confirmed and she seems to really be just going through the motions. Don't give up on this book at this point! Towards the end she is faced with some big surprises, has a huge and profround breakthrough of her own, and comes to some very insightful conclusions about the industry based around the "curing" of the mentally ill. By the end Vincent has written a astounding, brutally honest account of her own struggle with depression and how she found her way with both the help and hindrance of professionals.

I listened to this book on audio, read by Tavia Gilbert. She does a good job with the narration especially during the extremely emotional breakthroughs that Norah Vincent has. This is such a worthwhile book! I learned a lot about anti-pschotic drugs, mental illnesses, and especially about what happiness is and how it can be attained.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very similar to another book of its kind

This book is very similar to "Suicide: Inside and Out", by David K. Reynolds, who spent a year in a psych facility under a pseudonym, to research suicide behaviors inside the mental ward. Interesting perspective.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not for me.

Wishing I had spent the time (and my money) on something else.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Anonymous

I love to read memoirs, but this one i would skip. I felt like she was insulting some of the unfortuate people that require hospital treatment. A terrible book!!

Rinse and Repeat

I liked this book much better the first time, when it was called Girl Interrupted.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.