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“Sometimes it's as if I'm living in a dream I can't wake from. Sometimes I'm so high I could almost touch the sky. ” Pamela Filip |
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BOOK REVIEWS It has been a great read and very hard to
put down after I picked it up. I would describe it as a straight-from-the-heart
story of her trials and tribulations with mental illness, especially
as one among America’s minority population who deals with bipolar
disorder and its effects every day. I believe many in our community
will seek help because her book is so enlightening, honest, and
well written. Mrs. Filip gives a vivid account
of the difficulties of living with schizoaffective bipolar type
disorder. This illness includes but is not limited to many of the
symptoms that she reports: elated moods, sad moods, racing thoughts,
insomnia, talkativeness, shopping sprees, sexualized behaviors,
many marriages, flashy and/or sexy attire, excessive energy with
the impulse to clean, impulsive urges to travel, grandiose ideas,
hallucinations. An engrossing tale of an African-American
woman’s struggles
with bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizoaffective
disorder. Pamela Allen Filip, who grew up in a family of Texas
cotton-pickers with a bipolar mother, discovered her own mental
illness only in her 30s. She vividly describes her physical abuse,
three failed marriages, and the loss of two beloved children. Filip
bravely reveals other painful experiences her illness brought—having
to rely on welfare, feeling suicidal, being jailed for prostitution.
Despite it all, she fought back, sought treatment, learned about
her illness, endured medication side effects, and ultimately came
out on top. Her story will convince others who suffer the pain
and stigma of mental illness that they can overcome the challenges
and successfully manage their own lives. |
