£5.00
138 in stock
By Annie Moon
ISBN: 978-1-905610-76-1
Published: 2007
Pages: 175
Key Themes: schizophrenia, sectioning, psychosis, mental health services, strength
Description
‘To Schizophrenia and Back’ is Annie’s extremely brave and personal story of her life with schizophrenia. This book covers all aspects of Annie’s battle with schizophrenia, which she, rather unusually, tackles from all points of view – including from others with different perceptions of the problems she faces. Annie has adapted this book herself from the diaries she has kept through all her psychotic episodes. She has been detained many times under the Mental Health Act and at one time was told that she would never work again. But Annie has come through all this and the fact that she is now embarking on a new career is testament to the strength of her determination to beat her illness.
About the Author
Annie Moon is a trained nurse and is soon to be a social worker. She is also a mother, wife, friend and patient / service user. Annie has suffered from severe schizophrenia for many years; she has suffered many bouts of psychosis which have resulted in many months spent in detention. She is currently in the final year of a social work degree. With this book Annie aims to enlighten people and offer hope to those affected.
Book Extract
I lived in a friend’s house after being thrown out of the family home after my assault on my step-mum. This friend Rob was to be the best man at our wedding. He was a life long friend of Todd’s. He was in the army and he let me stop while he was away at work. Thank you, Rob; I’m forever in your debt- if it wasn’t for this help I couldn’t have carried on nursing without a place to live.
I then moved onto sharing a flat with a woman who had outlived three husbands! I didn’t stop there for too long!
It was not long before Todd and I found and bought our first home together. That was in April. We got married that August. The budget was very tight- however it’s the best wedding that I’ve ever been to!
After 2 years of studying we planned our first child and I caught straight away.
I was entitled to maternity leave towards the end of the pregnancy. During the pregnancy I was seen as somebody who needed ‘carrying’. There is a lot of bullying in a hospital staffed mainly by females. Life as a pregnant student nurse was very stressful. When I was lifting patients I was, as the nurses would say, ‘putting my baby at risk’. When I wasn’t lifting, i.e. doing other essential jobs, like checking blood observations, temperatures, pulses and blood pressures, I was seen as a burden.
When I was a student nurse, I found nights very difficult to cope with. I would go to bed at 8am and not wake up until 8pm. I felt overstretched, I wasn’t coping very well and I needed a rest. It was not unusual for me to be there at the last minute for a night shift!
Thanks to my understanding doctor realising how distressed I was getting due to what seemed to me to be the silent bullying, I was able to take the last few months off work.
It was while I was pregnant that my unborn baby took precedence. My eating problems went away; I exercised and ate all the right nutrients in my food. I have never smoked and I did not take any alcohol.
My first son was born weighing 7lb 4oz. He was born healthy with a mild birth defect which was rectified by a specialist plastic surgeon; it is thanks to him that my son has no lasting damage.
Refreshed from my maternity leave and nice and slim as a result of breast feeding, a good diet and plenty of exercise, I was ready to face the world. I would spend hours walking our dog in the local park whilst pushing the buggy or having No 1 son in a harness strapped to me. This period of my life was the happiest. When I smell certain things even today I recognise them from these times and I feel an overwhelming sense of peace, happiness and warmth washing over me.
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