Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir

by Sarah Fawn Montgomery

Diagnosed with severe anxiety, PTSD, and OCD in her early twenties, Sarah Fawn Montgomery spent the next ten years seeking treatment and the language with which to describe the indescribable consequences of her mental illness. Faced with disbelief, intolerable side effects, and unexpected changes in her mental health as a result of treatment, Montgomery turned to American history and her own personal history—including her turbulent childhood and the violence she faced as a young woman—to make sense of the experience.

Blending memoir with literary journalism, Montgomery’s Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir examines America’s history of mental illness treatment—lobotomies to sterilization, the rest cure to Prozac—to challenge contemporary narratives about mental health. Questioning what it means to be a woman with highly stigmatized disorders, Montgomery also asks why mental illness continues to escalate in the United States despite so many “cures.” Investigating the construction of mental illness as a “female” malady, Montgomery exposes the ways current attitudes towards women and their bodies influence madness as well as the ways madness has transformed to a chronic Illness in our cultural imagination. Montgomery’s Quite Mad is one woman’s story, but it offers a beacon of hope and truth for the millions of individuals living with mental illness and issues a warning about the danger of diagnosis and the complex definition of sanity.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Disability, Medical, Mental Illness, Disability Studies

296 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2018

Reviews

[CanadianReader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I pushed myself to page 100, by which point the book had become utterly intolerable. Montgomery’s mental health memoir is a real downer. Not recommended.

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think my expectations for this book were too high. While I completely empathize with the author’s experience, I hoped this would focus around big pharma’s influence on the mental health crisis in America. It did here and there, with cherry-picked facts around the experience of being a white cisgender female with mental illness. This *is* the authors experience and I can’t judge them for that... but to ignore minority populations in this discussion was off-putting for me personally.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This book gives a very raw and real portrayal of the internal experience of severe anxiety. I found it most compelling when she describes the disconnect between her internal state and how others perceive her, and talks about the nature of pain as something that can't be verified by others. Her story is also an indictment of our mental health systems of "care" (among other things, the fact that her doctors were not recommending therapy for her during the many years when she was prescribed multiple mental health medications is seriously malpractice!). I felt the book was sometimes less strong in the parts where it extrapolated from the author's experience to generalize about mental health treatment in general (e.g. when she describes her experience on Zoloft and then goes right into claims that Zoloft caused people to commit murders).

I appreciated this review's perspective.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intertwining the history of mental health issues in America and her own personal story with her struggles with anxiety, Sarah Fawn Montgomery explores the intersections of medicine, therapy and diagnosis. A thoughtful read. What I especially like is that Montgomery reflects on is the issues of mental health in the Blue Collar/Working-class world.

[JoЯge Gomez · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her gripping, at times poetic narrative, Sarah confesses the many complicated and intrinsic ways her mental health has shaped her life as well as those around her, particularly her partner but also her family that is selflessly dedicated to adopting at the expense of their own livelihoods, and in doing so zooms out to tell us how the US has socially-constructed its own narrative of what is and is not a mental health disorder along with its stigmas and prejudices, how society at large acts "intent on medicating madness away," how therapy functions as a foil rather than a supplement to medication, how much of the US healthcare system invalidates or miscategorises women's pain and suffering, and how Sarah herself juggles all this in the patriarchal academic system she finds herself in.

[Amber Tidwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured Quite Mad in a few hours. I couldn't put it down. But a week later, I'm still thinking about it, and I know I have to go back and read it again. The descriptions of Montgomery's experiences with mental illness, medication, and the complexities associated with both, kept me turning the pages, wanting to know her story. But it is the shocking and timely research delivered in the pages that sticks in my mind. Using her life as a guide, Montgomery offers relevant and personal commentary on an increasingly medicated and mentally ill society. Beautiful and transparent writing!

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book!!

[Leslie Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and incredible debut work of nonfiction, about the author's life with myriad mental health diagnoses, QUITE MAD, should be required reading for all, but especially those who have been touched with mental illness, either in a personal or professional manner.

With searing intelligence, unflinching honesty, and a breadth of research, Sarah Fawn Montgomery has left me in complete awe. QUITE MAD (Mad Creek Books, 2018) is a gorgeous melding of literary journalism meets memoir and is focused mostly on women in the U.S. and their relationship with mental illness.

But. Sarah Fawn Montgomery had a challenging family of origin, too. Much of this tumultuous upbringing is chronicled throughout the pages--delving into both of her parents backgrounds, their own anxiety, their desire to adopt a houseful of 'special needs' kids (abandoned at birth, drug-addicted babies, and those who otherwise weren't cut out for foster care and their subsequent diagnoses). I read with interest, with disbelief, with shock.

I found the prose poetic, literary, thoughtful, raw, honest, and poignant. The author takes the reader into a history of mental illness in the U.S. [of mostly women] marked with abuse, misunderstanding, social faux pas, medications, lack of healthcare, therapy, the paternalistic nature of psychiatry, and so much more. Much of this made me cringe, but it's also, still reality. And things need to change.

Still, we volley between this and the author's personal story: her struggles with severe anxiety, her OCD, her disordered eating, and more. It's all so well done and I couldn't stop flagging pages.

Truly, an important, humane read that is very thought-provoking, while simultaneously evoking empathy. Read it!

I found some similarities in terms of research and style to that of Ron Powers's NOBODY CARES ABOUT CRAZY PEOPLE meets RUNNING WITH SCISSORS (in terms of Fawn Montgomery's family of origin), with a touch of Terri Cheney's work.

For all my reviews, including author interviews, please see: www.leslielindsay.com
Special thanks to Mad Creek Books and the author for this review copy. All thoughts are my own.

[Jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, really - I appreciate what this book set out to do more than I appreciate what it actually did.
The author writes about her own experience and perspective - that’s fine, but she sometimes conflates her experience with *the* experience of white women in america. the chapter on her eating disorder particularly bothered me - why not begin to discuss the ways we can change this? she wrote about it like it is fact that girls are not to eat more than one slice of pizza. fuuuuuuck that.

i was also bothered by the way she wrote about anxiety, OCD, and her ED as completely separate things in her life, as if they weren’t intertwined.

I felt that this book really needed a better editor. Some timelines made no sense at all (and at one point she talks of how anxiety can do this to a person — yes, but in a separate narrative, make it make sense!). there were also times i felt she repeated herself. while largely well written, the editing was very frustrating.

i also felt like there was a bit of exaggeration. maybe its just me not trusting memoirs after “a million little pieces”… but …. could also be the editing?

thinking of thin, cis white women (albeit ones with mental health problems) as victims seems near-sighted. i appreciate her perspective on disability and the working class, but i really felt like the author has a perspective of herself as perpetual victim and as someone who’s worked to change that narrative for themself, this was frustrating..

[John Vanderslice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engrossing and carefully structured book; I might even call it curated. Along the way we learn quite a bit about Montgomery's star-crossed history with the prescription drugs assigned to her for depression (though that was not her issue); and how she only seemed to really turn a corner when, after many years, she found her way to therapy. But this is not only a personal story; it is also a history of the psychopharmaceutical industry and how across the world, and most particularly American culture, psychiatric drugs are entirely too over-prescribed, and dangerously prescribed, leading in some cases to pure tragedy. Said another way, Montgomery's story, and the story of the psychopharmaceutical industry, and the history of the DSM, are all intimately connected; both the good and the bad. This is quite the eye-opening read. I can only applaud the author for her fearless honesty.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great read. It has lots of information included, and perspectives on how our medical system works in this country. It made me cry several times because of the recognition of myself in passages, out of empathy, compassion and also for all the people who constantly have to struggle to be heard but keep being told what they "should" do. It's a powerful book, a heavy book, but also a hopeful one. It goes in depth about our medical industries treatment of mentally ill or anxious people, along with Sarah's story. Everything is woven together beautifully into a great memoir. I read it in one day because I could not put it down.

[Leanne Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good balance between the personal and commentary and history of mental health history in the US, particularly as if effects women. She did a better job than Leslie Jamison, who inserted her personal story into her dissertation for an awkward and wordy lurch. But like a lot of nonfiction, the book was repetitive and the organization poor - it jumped around a lot. I thought her family history with all the adoptions was the most interesting, more details on that and how her family members all relate to one another would have yielded a richer book.

[Annie Bierman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read about navigating healthcare in America as a woman, especially mental health issues, and how women have to advocate for themselves since their doctors and therapists sometimes brush off their concerns with claims of over-exaggeration and too much emotion. Montgomery’s own experience with pharmaceuticals points to a broken system which has always historically relegated women as hysteric and not knowledgeable about their own bodies. The tie between memoir and scientific research makes for a intriguing and balanced read.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, beautiful, and a gripping read!

I honestly couldn't put this down. I don't know what I was expecting when I went in, but to hear Montgomery's experiences with her gorgeous use of language was unexpected (in a good way!). Learning about her life experiences and how big pharma played a role in her (and many others') life and mental illness journey was very interesting to me. I highly encourage you to take a chance on this and give it a read!

[Ak · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who also has the same diagnoses as the author I appreciated the raw and honest portrayal of what it is like to be a woman in academia with mental illness. I also like how the author adds historical and sociological data and information about mental illness, psychology, women’s health and big pharmaceutical companies. Highly recommend.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book very slowly, but honestly, it made me feel so much better. Montgomery's anxiety is much more intense than mine. All the same, it's hard and complicated and painful, no matter what degree your mental illness. She's also a fabulous writer, and she cares so much.

<3

[Brianna Callahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting more about mental health care from a pharmaceutical perspective. Maybe since this is a memoir I was expecting the wrong thing? The statistics and studies referenced felt narrow in scope and only tell one side of the story I think.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using personal reflections, Quite Mad explores class and craziness, medication and madness, and how mental health diagnoses shape lives. A great book for thinking abt what is often unspoken.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very intense description of panic attacks. Well Written!

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

it’s like reading every thought you’ve ever had in your entire life and thinking, huh, maybe i’m not alone

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mental health issues make people uncomfortable. There is nowhere in popular culture that helps people be more aware, less afraid of mental illness. This is true of people experiencing mental illness as well. That’s what makes Montgomery’s book all that more necessary. By telling her own story in such a detailed and nuanced way, she brings humanity to mental illness. By combining her story with the exploration of the history of attitudes about mental illness, how treatment has evolved and is still evolving, Montgomery shows us the path forward to not only destigmatizing mental illness but also surviving it. In this way, she is like the more positive idea of a witch. One that can help others, perhaps heal or set them on a path to better mental health treatment. Montgomery is a witch of mental health helping those of us with similar issues to feel less alone in a scary world.