An Unquiet Mind

An Unquiet Mind

This is anemotionally captivating memoirthat highlights the life and struggles that Kay R. Jamisonunderwent with manic depression, a hereditary condition which she had to battle luckily to a happy conquest. It depicts a life of pain and desolation on one side and a life of determination and a positive attitude on the other side. It highlights her experiences in her earlier life, where she describes it as the most enjoyable and for lack of a better word the sane period. The onset of adolescence heralds the beginning of a period of emotional confusion characterized by frequent mood fluctuations that are brought a lot of frustrations.

The book takes us through moments of shows scenes of high emotions and exciting moments. The experience at the parking lot after a night of fun and drinking with friends can be cited as one of such moments. It is one of her high moments in her journey of life on the campus as they have had a time of excitement full of laughter and indulgence. The author comes up with such a scene to create a sense of humor in her work and to blend with the sad episodes. She portrays her earlier life as one full of fun, energy, and confidence that gave her the opportunity to be chosen as the leader in school, a favorite of many and such a friendly character. She recalls the many friends she used to have during that early stage in life before her father took up a job in California occasioning their relocation.

By the time she was 17, she had experienced this manic attack.  This went on through her undergraduate school life, which was a really wavy season of moments of great passion and excruciating low moments that left her completely detached from this world. Graduate life then marks the other difficult page in her life. This is the time she goes to the extreme end with real manic depression that puts her down completely unable to concentrate on her academic work. She started battling the stigma associated with the condition, especially at her young adult age.

The memoir serves great encouragement as a story of diligence and determination for one to change his life and make the best out of a difficult and unfavorable situation. When she was placed on lithium drugs, the side effects were so devastating her to the extent that her eyesight became quite blurred. This condition pushed her to direct her concentration on reading journals, poetry, and articles. This helped shape her future by developing her skills of writing and poetry, which she is utilizing now, and although she got to the point of attempting suicide, she was able to rise above this and overcome the stigma associated with it. Ray chose to go public about her otherwise stigmatizing condition in order to help many others who are in such situations and other circumstances that might be taking away their sense of self-worth.

Ray Jamison chose to use the thing that she had struggled with for so many years, and which almost costed her life to become the one condition she would study to the highest academic levels and become an authority in it. Her decision to write about it has made her become a world-renown writer and a respected academician. The book is such a motivation to all and sundry that no situation should limit a person to achieve her desired future. The attitude that one develops towards the situations he faces in life will always determine whether he will conquer or go down with it. The author proves that it is possible to turn around an otherwise devastating situation to a launching pad to one’s bright destiny.