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Me, Myself, And Them: A Firsthand Account Of One Young Person's Experience With SchizophreniaStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionDuring his second semester at college, Kurt Snyder became convinced that he was about to discover a fabulously important mathematical principle, spending hours lost in daydreams about numbers and symbols. In time, his thoughts took a darker turn, and he became preoccupied with the idea that cars were following him, or that strangers wanted to harm him. Kurt's mind had been hijacked by schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder that typically strikes during the late teen or young adult years. In Me, Myself, and Them, Kurt, now an adult, looks back from the vantage point of recovery and eloquently describes the debilitating changes in thoughts and perceptions that took hold of his life during his teens and twenties. As a memoir, this book is remarkable for its unvarnished look at the slow and difficult process of coming back from severe mental illness. Yet Kurt's memoir is only half the story. With the help of psychiatrist Raquel E. Gur, M.D., Ph.D., and veteran science writer Linda Wasmer Andrews, Kurt paints the big picture for others affected by adolescent schizophrenia. Reviews"Like a Sea World underwater view, Me, Myself, and Them provides a riveting peek into the world of schizophrenia for parents like me who yearn for understanding. For young people with schizophrenia, like our son, the book orients a frightening illness. For both families and persons with mental illness, this book is laced with hope, something in short supply in most other books."--Mindy Greiling, Minnesota State Representative and Executive Board Member, National Alliance on Mental Illness Table of contentsPreface; 1. A Fragmented Mind: Overview of Schizophrenia; 2. First Encounters With Them: Symptoms and Paranoia; 3. In the Grip of Them: Losing Touch with Reality; 4. Naming and Facing the Enemy: Diagnosis and Treatment; 5. Beating the Enemy: Recovery from Schizophrenia; 6. Putting the Pieces Back Together: My Life Today |