Description

An Anthology of Mental Illness and Treatment
By Katharine May Cunningham

ISBN: 978-1-84991-603-5
Published: 2011
Pages: 56
Key Themes: Mental Health, Fiction, Anthology

Description

This is a fictional anthology of mental illness and the mental health system, based on the author’s and her friends’ experiences, and things read about others’ experiences in the mental health system. These poems are often used as an attempt to bring humor to the subject of mental health.

About the Author

Katharine May Cunningham was born in 1988 in Canada. She has a son who was born in 2008 and has eight psychiatric diagnoses. She is currently studying to be a psychiatric technician and has released some activist videos online, devoted to the notion that different does not mean bad or defective.

Book Extract

Idle Hands

So one day I go looking for something interesting to do.
I want to create, but to destroy too.
I just need some stimulation.
I’m tired of the attitude of conservation.
I just hacked into the CIA
And left a note saying “try my way”.
I made signs with slogans against court-ordered executions
And I also tried to help the murdered people with the retributions.
I shoplifted a lot. It wasn’t hard.
Then I applied for a job as a security guard.
I burned down my home to kill a mouse
And then I built myself a cardboard box house.
I beat the crap out of another;
Then took him home and showed his mother.
My still-idle hands shot an obvious thief;
Then gave him first aid as he gave me grief.
If you’d just give me something meaningful to do,
I would have done it, and enjoyed it too.