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'Voluntary Madness' Author Norah Vincent Tells of Her Depression

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I am currently in the middle of your book. I must say that I am taken aback by your far to quick and uneducated opinion of those people who are voluntary or involuntary patients of the city hospital you placed yourself in. First of all, they are not all psychotic, a word you use too often. Do you even understand the meaning of psychosis? It seems to me that your research was not all too extensive. Your stay at the hospital was only ten days. Try staying for three months. You may learn much more about the culture of those who go through the revolving doors of city institutions. You may also open your eyes to the staff who do care. They are usually the ones who are still seated behind the nursing station when the revolvers come back for a tune up. You are also in great denial about those people who end up in city hospitals, as opposed to the alternative hospital you speak so highly of. This is completely out of reality. It shows me that you are a fortunate, depressed individual who happened to write a New York Times bestselling book. You have money. It does not take a sane, brilliant mind to know that you speak not as a person with either a mood or personality disorder. You are a journalist with the blues and elementary opinions about the system, medication and those who truly suffer from affliction. You formed these opinions during your ten day stint at Meriwether Hospital. You were the patient's savior with phone cards, cigs and junk food. How low is your self-esteem, with the need to give instant gratification to real people who are in a city hospital because they need a safe place to be. Your tolerance quickly evaporated when the intelligent mentally ill people figured out your game. You happened to be on the phone with your private shrink and got annoyed. How quaint! A yuppi with support and friends on the outside. How dare you take such a serious issue as mental illness, prancing into a hospital where no one wants to be but you, to make money on another book. I was one of the unfortunates who attempted suicide. Should I have been swept off to a spa in Conn. to do Yoga and Hydrotherapy. I doubt it, with my insurance. I went where every other shmuk goes who tries to do them self in. I am one of the fortunate's who has an education and a kick Ass, Hospice Nurse sister who demanded that I stay in the hospital for more than five days. Yes, the insurance Companies suck. Don't blame it on the hospital staff. They would much rather be with the patients than doing paperwork. I am an MSW. I know this for a fact. Paper work may be the very reason for my depression and unemployment. I am happy that I spent $16.00 on your adventures on the psych ward. Next you should try detoxing off 19 years worth of Benzos. Then you will understand psychosis. One day, I too will have a New York Times best selling book. I would be interested in corresponding with you. Send a line to a person in recovery. Beth Shoenfeld

beth shoenfeld shoenfeld of NY 5:26PM October 03, 2011

I saw this book online and I thought that it looked pretty good. What's it about exactly? Where can I find this book? Can I find it at Books-a-Million?

Kole Tate of KS 8:22PM January 06, 2011

As I understand it, was Norah Vincent in an insane asylum?

Kole Tate of KS 8:19PM January 06, 2011

This was a wonderful insightful book. I have been on Lithium And Prozac during two different intervals in my life. But when I decided that I wanted to change my perspective and take charge of my own happiness, I quite talking to even my medical dr. Who is always thinking typical stresses of a working exhausted mom,who is also a full time student is "depression". Sure there are days I struggle, but I quit thinking "I'm so depressed" And started thinking perhaps just maybe I'm so stressed, I was able to take back my life...un-medicated. And as Ms Vincent points out: It is a joke to think that mandatory treatment will cure anyone of any disease unless a person has DECIDED to make a change in behaviors.

Nancy of WA 10:20PM November 27, 2009

Her conclusions at the end of the book are the most important. I wish the interviewer had asked about them.
She came to the conclusion that none of the facilities, public or private, could help anyone who wasn't putting forth an effort to help themselves. She met people in each place who were just waiting to get out to get back to their alcohol, drugs; and those that refused to consider changing the habits of thought that were keeping them trapped.
She notes that it isn't surprising that some people who work in these facilities get cynical and start pushing medications, because that's all they can control when people don't want to work to get better.
She really hammers home how hard it is to work at getting better. It's not a one time deal, it's not magic. It requires work every day; sometimes a hard slog every day. For her, it requires two oddly juxtaposed but linked things: staying with her discomfort and anxiety to face it (not running away to the nearest distraction) and being active both physically and mentally.
I found her insights useful and I wish her all the best!

AM of IN 10:29AM August 10, 2009

I was the product of an unhappy broken home, with a mother who I now believe to have Munchausen By Proxy syndrome, a condition where the sufferer gets the attention and sympathy they crave by causing false medical conditions in their children. I was a teenager in the 80's, when forced juvenile psychiatric incarceration was enjoying a malevolent heyday.
I was diagnosed with everything from paranoid schizophrenia to psychosis to borderline personality disorder (which I now find out is pretty much a BS diagnosis to many in the field). Had I come of age in the ADHD fury, I'm sure I would have been slapped with that label as well. I was forcibly medicated for these conditions, none of which I had, or have ever had, with horrible side effects. (vomiting, zombie-like sluggishness, excessive sleep, weight gain, unstable mood swings, thoughts of suicide.) All of these conditions magically vanished when I was finally out of my mother's care. Once I got over the trauma of having spent 2 1/2 years incarcerated against my will and all that had happened to me as a result (including, but not limited to: molestation, assault, ostracization, and witnessing suicide attempts) I was a happy, healthy, highly functioning adult. I now run my own business and am raising a wonderful son.
My point is this: the psychiatric community dropped the ball en masse for me and many of my peers confined to these places. For every person actually struggling with a disease or condition, there were at least 10 others who were simply dropped off so that lazy, cruel, or clueless parents wouldn't have to do their jobs. That these hospitals were doing the job for them at an enormous profit sends a red flag up for me. It's seemingly very easy, in a family therapy situation, to side with the one holding the purse strings. Since every therapist not paid (directly or indirectly) by my mother said there was nothing wrong with me, I find it curious that the ones who did always had my mother's check in their hand. Whether deliberate or subconscious, the conflict of interest renders the diagnosis in such cases highly suspect, to say the least.
I am not a Scientologist, and I don't believe we should do away with the industry, which can do good when kept in check. But there is rampant abuse of the system, and it needs an overhaul. There is no such thing as a 'bad' or 'sick' individual in a healty family unit. The family dynamic should always be considered as a whole, because save for an organic or obvious physical defect, it is the entire family who is responsible for the behaviour of its members. No kid who acts out does so in a happy, healthy, functioning family, and if even a mismedicated teenage kid understands this, it boggles my mind why a slew of supposedly educated psychiatric professionals could have missed it.
Medication should be treated with caution, particularly in young people whose bodies are still maturing and developing. Great harm can be done by mismedicating.

b of MT 11:39AM March 07, 2009

After several stays in a local facility in northern Florida-my depressive state was diagnosed as being Bi-lor and my first visit left me ther toxic on lithium. A secind visit has me there after taking serolcel(sp) another mood stabilizing drug-That combined with the total sensory deprevation of the facility and the disreguard for the patients feelings have me at a point that i feel the cure for the depresssion or the bi-polar(not sure i have either}, have me feeling the illness is by far better to have than the so called cure that the pharmespuedical company recommend. A traumatic childhood and a difficult adult hood have contributed to a very confused present left with many anxieties about medications to help. Do I have to live like a zombie in order to try to feel some joy?

beverly faulk of FL 9:53PM February 27, 2009

First let me say that many medical conditions, when mild to moderate in nature, can be treated without medication. Examples include mild cases of Diabetes which can be controlled by weight loss and diet, mild cases of Hypertension which can be controlled by diet and exercise and mild cases of Asthma which can be kept under control by avoiding certain triggers. However, more severe cases of these illnesses virtually always require medication. Similarly, mild cases of Depression can be treated with a variety of techniques including exercise, psychotherapy, decreasing stress, healthy diet, plenty of sleep, etc….. But once again as the acuity increases so does the need for medication treatment. The danger in books such as this is that they give the impression that psychotherapy, healthy snacks, yoga, a gym, spa treatments, socializing and putting in a hard effort can treat all cases of Major Depression and also that meds can be stopped and started at will. Can you imagine some one stopping their heart medication to check into a hospital to write about the treatment conditions?
The brain research on psychiatric disorders is slowly advancing and we are now able to identify genetic risk factors for many of the major diagnoses. In fact specific genes are now being researched as potential causal agents. But, unfortunately Mental Health conditions are still thought of, even by very intelligent people, as being totally under the control of the individual. Thus, only the weak succumb to Major Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and other similar diagnoses. Just look at the immense popularity of self help books which preach all types of ways to live your best life if you just follow a few simple guidelines. These take no account of the possibility that a true Chemical Imbalance of the brain may be the problem. Until everyone realizes that these are true medical conditions which can be evaluated medically and treated with medication there will remain an unfair stigma and a reluctance to seek treatment associated with Psychiatric conditions.
Dr. D. Dale Archer
www.TellDrD.com

Dr D of LA 8:56PM February 27, 2009

just asking

igor of MI 3:48PM January 05, 2009

I have been put on several medications for depression over the years, and looking back, I think that knowing these things would have prevented a lot of suffering:
1) Taking Vitamin D to ward off Seasonal Affective Disorder. I take 3000 IU -- it's very dark in the winter in Seattle. With sunset at 4:30, I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. Supplementing Vitamin D helps when I cannot make my own from the sun.
2) Weaning myself off of simple/refined carbs to avoid the "sugar blues" mood swings, which are severe in several people in my family.
3) Getting at LEAST one hour per day of brisk walking. Two is better!
4) Making my bedroom and bedtime as comfortable as possible, no matter what it takes, to get at least seven hours of sleep: fan, heater, new pillows, better blankets, eye shade, ear plugs, better mattress, better curtains, double socks...whatever it is I need to do, I do it and I don't hesitate. People who are prone to depression NEED restorative sleep. We go without sleep at our peril. Our bodies do so much repair work during sleep, and our minds process our experiences during dreams. Without deep sleep, we lose our emotional bearings and become prone to severe depression. Even lying comfortably and quietly in a dark room is better than nothing. It heals and comforts us, if we're not over-stimulated.
5) Avoid any kind of stimulants like poison. Coffee, colas, black or green tea, I don't care what it is, if it interferes with sleep it doesn't go in my body.
These things seem to help a lot. I haven't needed anti-depressants for three years.

Jean V of WA 9:55PM January 04, 2009