Description

Songs and Poems
By Anne Marie Brian

ISBN: 978-1-84991-011-8
Published: 2009
Pages: 113
Key Themes: poetry, manic depression, love, recovery, empowerment

ALSO AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK

Description

These songs and poems have been written over the past 20 years, usually when I have been in a “high” phase of bipolar disorder (manic depression). I am always very creative during these times, and tend to stay up late scribbling away. I have been a writer of sorts for the whole of my life. I have written a novel which was rubbish and ended up in the bin. For 25 years I have written letters to a penpal which, incredibly, she has kept, so maybe one day they will be “discovered” and published posthumously! I play guitar and some of the songs in this book have tunes and chords and everything, but to date I have only recorded four of them. I hope you will enjoy reading my work. It is not my intention to offend anyone, but I want to stick up for people who find themselves on a psychiatric ward, because it can be a terrifying experience.

About the Author

Anne Marie Brian was educated at a Convent school from which she was expelled at the age of 14. She was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1959.
She did not like school much but managed to obtain a smattering of qualifications later on.

She had her first “breakdown” at the age of 26, when delirium tremens was incorrectly diagnosed as a drugs overdose, and treated with a cocktail of psychiatric medication. Her consultant psychiatrist said at the time that she would be in hospital for two years, but her parents kept her at home, and three months later, she was off all the medication and back at work.

At the age of 30, while in the middle of a degree course, Anne Marie was hospitalised, sectioned, and labelled “schizophrenic”. Six months later, after her release from hospital, she stopped the injections of modecate and recovered sufficiently to work full-time, and so her consultant psychiatrist changed her diagnosis to “manic depressive”.

In 1994 Anne Marie had son, Callum. Despite all the negative input from psychiatric services, who harrassed her to such an extent that she had a breakdown when seven months pregnant, she not only successfully raised Callum, but also home-educated him from the age of 7.

Anne Marie lives with Callum and her partner, Iain, in Berkshire.

Book Extract

My Love is Unfaithful

And the first one’s down in seconds
And, though he swears he’ll give her up
There’s always one more little sup
I cannot kill her with a sword
Nor with a thousand chosen words
Her magic’s of a deadly kind
The spells she weaves will drive him blindly to – oblivion!
While he’s deaf to my cries
And the tears in my eyes
He mistakes for laughter

‘Illness’ or ‘Ability’?