Into Sanity: Essays About Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Living in Between - A Talking Writing Anthology

by Martha Nichols, Mark Vonnegut (Preface)

In this remarkable collection, 22 writers describe suicidal despair or mania—or coming to terms with a generational legacy of mental illness. Into Sanity includes personal essays by contributors from all over the United States and a preface by Mark Vonnegut, who judged the contest at Talking Writing magazine that sparked these true stories.

The media has paid more attention to suicide risks and depression in recent years, especially after the death of well-loved celebrities. And yet, mental illness remains misunderstood. Into Sanity offers the lived reality. These writers underscore why the stigma makes mental illness so hard to talk about—and why it takes courage to speak up.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays

290 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 15, 2019

Reviews

[Rusty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful, if a little uneven quality-wise, collection that gives you many perspectives in a small space. It's not too academic or too familiar, which is an added bonus.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compilation of essays gives the reader a glimpse through windows of alternate realities. Recommended for those who seek understanding, value honesty and are willing to see things differently.

Favorite Passages:
Dedication
To all with open hearts and minds.


Introduction: Living in Between
While there have been scores of memoirs about mental illness or its treatment, Into Sanity contains a multitude.
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Into Sanity delves into the flip sides of mental illness and health, shaking up the received wisdom like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope.
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. . . I have genetic residue.


Preface: Telling The Truth To Save Your Own Life
I've had magic powers that at times were not entirely unenjoyable. But among the other things meds do when they're working is to make art and the human contract more accessible.


Unleashed
How surprised they must have been, how betrayed they must have felt, when their illness, whatever it was, drew a curtain over one world and opened up another.
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Look a person in the eye, and unless they've been entirely shattered, you'll often get a glimpse of a soul who's watching, who knows the self on display in the big coat is just one self among many.
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There is a stage in mania that seems identical to a mystic's understanding of everything being ultimately connected, of intense and inexplicable joy being at the very foundation of what is.