There Comes a Light: A Memoir of Mental Illness

by Elaina J Martin

Overview

An unexpected suicide attempt led to the diagnosis of Bipolar I in October 2007. I take the reader inside the walls of two psych wards and introduce them to the mentally ill. I climb onto a third story roof at 2 A.M. night after night. Barrel down a country road at 110 miles per hour. Climb a tree in a sequin dress. Irrational thinking. Grandiosity. Limitless ideas. Mania. A depression so incapacitating I could barely lift my toothbrush to my mouth. Self-harm that led to blood dripping from my fingers onto the bathroom linoleum. Tiny blue stitches. Obsessing over my prescription pills and X-acto blades and knives as a means of suicide. It’s all in there. The compassion of my family is evident as I move in with my parents after living on my own for ten years. I fall in love and prove that there is love for everyone. I learn that compassion isn’t just for other people. Psychiatrists, therapists, support groups, friends, family, partners. I rely on the strength of others and soon their strength is my own.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940155141662
Publisher:	Elaina J Martin
Publication date:	02/11/2018
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	423 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hi. My name is Elaina, but when writing I like to go by Elaina J. I guess I feel like it differentiates me from all the other writing ‘Elaina’s’ out there. I am sure it truly doesn’t, but I do what I want. I guess you could say I have been writing all my life. I wrote a book about how my dad’s head looked like an apple when I was five. When I was in high school my teacher asked me if I’d ever thought about being an author. I hadn’t. (I wanted to be an Air Force jet pilot). I eventually decided to be a style writer and found myself in the Great Big World of Fashion. I finally got to write. I became an editor and started a blog about my somewhat socialite life on an antiquated social media site called MySpace. I got fired for it. I wrote about the firing for Jane magazine and got paid for it. Take that, Publisher! I moved on to a new magazine as the Executive Editor. Nice title, too little pay. It was a high stress job so I left it to work at a gym. Yep. I took people around the gym and sold memberships. This is where I started to go a little crazy. Like seriously crazy and had to move back in with my parents. A couple months later (too soon), I thought I was better and moved to California to be a Style Editor. I wasn’t. I needed an outlet for my writing, so in 2003, I became a blogger for Psych Central called ‘Being Beautifully Bipolar.’ And have been blogging twice a week since then. Want to know the rest of the story? Well, you’ll just have to read my book, “There Comes a Light: A Memoir of Mental Illness”.