Description

On the Bright Side

By Andrew Aldred

ISBN: 978-1-78382-287-4
Published: 2016
Pages: 75
Key Themes: Mental Health, Mental Illness, Paranoid Schizophrenia

Description

This book is a mixture of poetry and short stories. The poetry is about my daily life as a paranoid schizophrenic and issues that concern me, and hopefully will concern you, the reader, as well. The issues covered include current affairs, relationships and family. The short stories are about a variety of topics including a mental patient on the run, a cannibal woman, a child-molesting murderer, discipline in the army, life as a single parent and terrorism.

About the Author

I have been in Mental Health Services since 1985, when I had a huge mental breakdown after serving in the Falklands with the army. Since then my life has been something of a rollercoaster of mental illness until meeting my wife Jane seven years ago.

I have been in and out of hospital from 1985 until 2009. I had an illness which I attributed to my father and resulted in me stabbing him in 1997 and going to the Edenfield Unit in Prestwich Hospital for 6 years. This is when I started to write poetry to keep myself sane and give me something to focus on.

Book Extract

Twisted and Broken

Now that my wife has gone
Taking all of her family with her
I am left with nothing to do
And no purpose in life
I have been retired from the army
Since I was forty years’ old
And I don’t know what to do for a living
They gave me a pension
It’s a blessing and a curse
I’ve got money but I don’t have to work
They don’t give disabled people jobs
I’ve decorated the house
And sorted everything out inside it
Nobody really wants to know me
And I’ll be fifty next year
I’ve got to go out and find a new life