Kaylin McFarren's Blog - Posts Tagged "high-flying"
Is Self-Harm a Form of Mental Illness?
While writing my latest novel, HIGH FLYING, I wanted to create a complex, self-debasing character that struggles with her past and self-image and, at the same time, recognizes her inability to connect with others. Throughout her adolescence, she longs to be "normal" like other people, but self-harm becomes her vice and the quickest, most effective way to deal with the negativity in her life...until she finds a powerful solution.
In the course of researching this subject, I discovered that cutting is a common form of deliberate self-harm and may co-occur with other self-injurious behaviors such as skin-burning, hair-pulling, and anorexia, and that people who cut themselves often use razors, knives, or other sharp objects. However, cutting is not typically an attempt at suicide or long-term self-harm. Rather, it is an immediate reaction to stress that provides release for the person who cuts. They may accidentally sever a vein or artery, which can be life-threatening, but this behavior is not listed in the DSM-IV as a mental health disorder. Instead, it is related to other impulse control conditions such as pyromania (obsession with fires), kleptomania (persistent stealing), and/or pathological gambling.
Self-harm can also be a symptom of borderline personality (BPD), as well as factitious disorders, which occur when a person fakes an illness or believes he or she has a disease they haven't truly contracted. People who cut themselves may also suffer from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other stress-related conditions.
Outpatient therapy using a variety of methods, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy, can be highly effective at teaching people more effective skills for coping with stress. However, unless treated, cutting is a behavior that tends to escalate, resulting in more severe and frequent cutting over time. People who have been cutting for an extended period of time may require inpatient treatment, which involves group therapy, individual therapy, and when necessary, psychotropic medication to help mitigate the psychological factors that contribute to cutting.
Often therapy for treating this disorder involves redirection--a sort of reprograming mechanism, for dealing with stressful situations. This might involve various forms of self-expressive art, tennis, boxing, or other activities as a means for releasing pent-up emotions, tension and anxiety. Support, compassion and understanding by friends, family members and anyone aware of this condition is also very important. Society as a whole needs to understand that anyone who has a history of cutting or other obsessive disorders is fully capable of leading a healthy, normal life, if given the chance to do so.
In the course of researching this subject, I discovered that cutting is a common form of deliberate self-harm and may co-occur with other self-injurious behaviors such as skin-burning, hair-pulling, and anorexia, and that people who cut themselves often use razors, knives, or other sharp objects. However, cutting is not typically an attempt at suicide or long-term self-harm. Rather, it is an immediate reaction to stress that provides release for the person who cuts. They may accidentally sever a vein or artery, which can be life-threatening, but this behavior is not listed in the DSM-IV as a mental health disorder. Instead, it is related to other impulse control conditions such as pyromania (obsession with fires), kleptomania (persistent stealing), and/or pathological gambling.
Self-harm can also be a symptom of borderline personality (BPD), as well as factitious disorders, which occur when a person fakes an illness or believes he or she has a disease they haven't truly contracted. People who cut themselves may also suffer from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other stress-related conditions.
Outpatient therapy using a variety of methods, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy, can be highly effective at teaching people more effective skills for coping with stress. However, unless treated, cutting is a behavior that tends to escalate, resulting in more severe and frequent cutting over time. People who have been cutting for an extended period of time may require inpatient treatment, which involves group therapy, individual therapy, and when necessary, psychotropic medication to help mitigate the psychological factors that contribute to cutting.
Often therapy for treating this disorder involves redirection--a sort of reprograming mechanism, for dealing with stressful situations. This might involve various forms of self-expressive art, tennis, boxing, or other activities as a means for releasing pent-up emotions, tension and anxiety. Support, compassion and understanding by friends, family members and anyone aware of this condition is also very important. Society as a whole needs to understand that anyone who has a history of cutting or other obsessive disorders is fully capable of leading a healthy, normal life, if given the chance to do so.
New Review for HIGH FLYING
High Flying
Kaylin McFarren
ISBN 9781091374799
Imagine an adrenaline junkie (addicted to heart-stopping challenges and potentially life-threatening activities) who discovers the lure of flying. Skylar Haines isn't just addicted to passion: she makes choices that involve cutting herself, trying to get a handle on the darkness of her past and in her soul.
When a near-miss at an air show sends her literally into a spiral, she flies outside of herself and into the past in a surprise move that changes an introduction that sounds like an exploration of bipolar disorder into a rare opportunity to change a past which has not just influenced but destroyed her life.
It should be advised that High Flying is not a 'time-slip' story, per se. Kaylin McFarren crafts a close inspection of a young woman flying on the edge of disaster, then adds a fantasy element in which Skylar has the opportunity to change everything if she accepts the greatest dare in her life.
From an unexpected friendship opportunity to new revelations about past, present, and future and the choices she has over her life and matters of the heart ("She looked down at the faded scars on her arms, reminding herself that despite everything that had happened in her life, she would never regret what she had done in the future, only the things she didn’t do in the past…when she had the chance."), this hard-hitting story begins with anger, self-destruction and responses to murder then evolves into a psychological introspection that follows Skylar to new heights of development.
She may be the last person in the world to save anyone outside of herself, but as purpose supercharges her life and lends her unprecedented strength, so Skylar discovers the paths that ultimately lead to redemption, healing, and solving a puzzle that has changed everything.
The result is a time-slip style tale that is nicely steeped in psychological introspection. High Flying is particularly highly recommended for readers who like to follow their characters on the evolutionary path towards better life choices.
D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Kaylin McFarren
ISBN 9781091374799
Imagine an adrenaline junkie (addicted to heart-stopping challenges and potentially life-threatening activities) who discovers the lure of flying. Skylar Haines isn't just addicted to passion: she makes choices that involve cutting herself, trying to get a handle on the darkness of her past and in her soul.
When a near-miss at an air show sends her literally into a spiral, she flies outside of herself and into the past in a surprise move that changes an introduction that sounds like an exploration of bipolar disorder into a rare opportunity to change a past which has not just influenced but destroyed her life.
It should be advised that High Flying is not a 'time-slip' story, per se. Kaylin McFarren crafts a close inspection of a young woman flying on the edge of disaster, then adds a fantasy element in which Skylar has the opportunity to change everything if she accepts the greatest dare in her life.
From an unexpected friendship opportunity to new revelations about past, present, and future and the choices she has over her life and matters of the heart ("She looked down at the faded scars on her arms, reminding herself that despite everything that had happened in her life, she would never regret what she had done in the future, only the things she didn’t do in the past…when she had the chance."), this hard-hitting story begins with anger, self-destruction and responses to murder then evolves into a psychological introspection that follows Skylar to new heights of development.
She may be the last person in the world to save anyone outside of herself, but as purpose supercharges her life and lends her unprecedented strength, so Skylar discovers the paths that ultimately lead to redemption, healing, and solving a puzzle that has changed everything.
The result is a time-slip style tale that is nicely steeped in psychological introspection. High Flying is particularly highly recommended for readers who like to follow their characters on the evolutionary path towards better life choices.
D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Another Great Review!
Title: High Flying
Author: Kaylin McFarren
Publisher: Creative Edge Publishing, LLC (2019)
ISBN-13: 9781091374799
ASIN: B07QYH3CD4
Audio: Coming soon
Website: http://www.kaylinmcfarren.com/
Rating: 5/5
Stunt-pilot, 21-year-old Skylar Haines, honed by a childhood of adversity and trauma, is ambivalent about flying eight new maneuvers for which she's had little preparation and no in-air practice.
A lot could go wrong.
Her father, a pilot, was killed in a plane crash before she was born, triggering her mother's downward spiral into a life of booze, drugs, and prostitution. When Skylar was seven, her mother died. As an orphan, Skylar fell into the system until her grandfather stepped in - no bed of roses there. Although she emerged an independent, savvy, and street-smart survivor who'd learned to fly along the way, those painful memories of her youth are always fresh in her mind.
Why had she agreed to fly in tandem with her mentor, Jake Brennen, for this performance? She might have said it was a lifelong dream. Or, that she did it out of love. Both would be true, but, of course, there is more…
Before she realizes it, she's flown into the bowels of a storm, loses radio contact with Jake, and struggles to keep her plane aloft. After a near miss with another aircraft, she regains radio contact. A stranger talks her down into a world before her time.
Skylar uses everything she knows, and everything she's learned to survive. Dylan Haines, who's not yet her father, saves her, and she becomes entangled in his life in ways that stretch the imagination. He is caught in a web of danger and deceit destined to kill him. Skylar is tempted to intervene, but knows his fate is set. Her father has to die, in order for her to live.
Like a modern-day H.G. Wells, Kaylin McFarren's High Flying, ventures boldly into the fourth dimension, where history is reimagined, and epiphanies come in three-dimensional, real time. This gritty, emotionally penetrating story, set in Nevada, that not only touches upon social concerns with roots in the past, but reaches into the future. The characters have depth and the dialogue is sparkling authenticity. Here's a story where everyone has an agenda, there are more crooks than cops, and bullets fly with abandon. In other words, a deliciously twisted sci-fi mystery with plenty of danger and romance!
*****
"In a world where love doesn't conquer all but comes pretty darn close, Kaylin McFarren delivers a sexy and riveting time travel story that does not disappoint!" - Chanticleer Reviews
Author: Kaylin McFarren
Publisher: Creative Edge Publishing, LLC (2019)
ISBN-13: 9781091374799
ASIN: B07QYH3CD4
Audio: Coming soon
Website: http://www.kaylinmcfarren.com/
Rating: 5/5
Stunt-pilot, 21-year-old Skylar Haines, honed by a childhood of adversity and trauma, is ambivalent about flying eight new maneuvers for which she's had little preparation and no in-air practice.
A lot could go wrong.
Her father, a pilot, was killed in a plane crash before she was born, triggering her mother's downward spiral into a life of booze, drugs, and prostitution. When Skylar was seven, her mother died. As an orphan, Skylar fell into the system until her grandfather stepped in - no bed of roses there. Although she emerged an independent, savvy, and street-smart survivor who'd learned to fly along the way, those painful memories of her youth are always fresh in her mind.
Why had she agreed to fly in tandem with her mentor, Jake Brennen, for this performance? She might have said it was a lifelong dream. Or, that she did it out of love. Both would be true, but, of course, there is more…
Before she realizes it, she's flown into the bowels of a storm, loses radio contact with Jake, and struggles to keep her plane aloft. After a near miss with another aircraft, she regains radio contact. A stranger talks her down into a world before her time.
Skylar uses everything she knows, and everything she's learned to survive. Dylan Haines, who's not yet her father, saves her, and she becomes entangled in his life in ways that stretch the imagination. He is caught in a web of danger and deceit destined to kill him. Skylar is tempted to intervene, but knows his fate is set. Her father has to die, in order for her to live.
Like a modern-day H.G. Wells, Kaylin McFarren's High Flying, ventures boldly into the fourth dimension, where history is reimagined, and epiphanies come in three-dimensional, real time. This gritty, emotionally penetrating story, set in Nevada, that not only touches upon social concerns with roots in the past, but reaches into the future. The characters have depth and the dialogue is sparkling authenticity. Here's a story where everyone has an agenda, there are more crooks than cops, and bullets fly with abandon. In other words, a deliciously twisted sci-fi mystery with plenty of danger and romance!
*****
"In a world where love doesn't conquer all but comes pretty darn close, Kaylin McFarren delivers a sexy and riveting time travel story that does not disappoint!" - Chanticleer Reviews
