Admissions: Voices within Mental Health

by David Stavanger (Editor), Radhiah Chowdhury (Editor), Mohammad Awad (Editor)

This groundbreaking collection documents the state of mental health in Australia, foregrounding a wide range of voices with lived experience defining themselves beyond a diagnosis.

Admissions showcases more than one hundred works: poems, essays, lyrics, fiction and illustrations from some of our leading writers, comedians and public figures, challenging prescribed notions of illness, recovery, treatment and trauma while reclaiming language as an act of mad pride.

Genres: Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

Published October 5, 2022

Reviews

[Aden · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you pick up a book about mental health issues in the creative space, you need to be ready for the onslaught of sad poets. And boy does this deliver. Some pieces had me in tears of laughter, some of sadness. I resonated with a few pieces, but honestly - for the most part - this book is not written for you, the reader. It is instead a look into the sad underbelly of art; that a lot of the good stuff is trauma porn. And in this book we hear what happens to the artists who tap that poisoned chalice of trauma and try to digest the bad stuff, to put it through the liver and piss it out while absorbing the rich nutrients of their suffering to give us their best work. Turns out, its not always so easy and sometimes the patient succumbs. This book is deeply personal. Heartwarming and heartrending! Hearing about someone being institutionalised in a mental hospital in such a creative and passionate way was not something I expected to do (ever) and I'm glad I did. Unfortunately, there are about a dozen or so pieces that are completely unintelligble. Either the editors accidentally skipped these on a late night, or left them in (as part of broader message) to remind us that individuals can sometimes be manically crazy in the archaic sense - and are often incapable of communicating with anyone else. I think quantity over quality might have also been a minor feature, but with these things - sometimes its best to include more and a large portion didn't 'align' or speak to me (and thats okay). Apart from those minor points, it was good. Anyone interested in mental health should give it a read. I'd give a 4.5, if I could do half stars.

[Emmaby Barton Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

finally read this one! started reading it inpatient ages (march 16 - it's now december 24) ago - and while it was really helpful at the time, i simply didn’t have the brain space to read it in full. as with all anthologies, there’s definitely varying qualities of pieces - and a lot less in this one stood out to me than i expected unfortunately. but still a really important anthology

my favourite pieces
- who is she - manal younus
- no crazy person is mad enough - fiona wright
- the absence of memory - felicity ward
- a victim who feels like a villain - martin ingle
- ‘but you dont look autistic’ - aroma davis
- love letter - andrew cox
- motherliness - radhiah chowdhury
- if i smell gas and there is no gas or am i a psychoanalyst if i dont have. couch?
- i’m so lonely - the bedroom philosopher

favourite quotes
- ‘it hurts sometimes, but that’s ok’ (no crazy person is mad enough - fiona wright)
- ‘when i’m depressed i, in my maudlin state, accept with resignation that this is actually who i am - tired, sad, numb, separate from everyone and from my body, unmotivated, unfixable, existing - and that the times i feel ‘happy’ are the aberration. the blips. the sunny breaks in an otherwise cloudy life. at the same time, when i’m happy and light and joyous and brilliant and child-like and powerful and spirited and warm and loving, i thunk ‘no this is the true me. that depression is the thing that needs to be kept at bay.’ what i haven’t accepted is that both parts are the real me. the brilliance the numbness. the loudness and the deafening silence. and if they could hold hands long enough to understand each other, then maybe i wouldn’t still be fighting this damp, suffocating disease. maybe i wouldn’t hold such contempt for it, and wouldn’t shove it in my own face as a victimless badge of honour.’ (the absence of memory - felicity ward)
- ‘such a reminder is not good or bad. it is just information’(smart ovens for lonely people - elizabeth tan)
- ‘inside the house of depression, the feeling forever, yet the wretched hope to mitigate its symptoms persist’ (how to be happy - cher tan)
- ‘saying that capitalism (or colonialism or racism) is the problem does not help me get up in the morning’ (cvetkovich; how to be happy - cher tan)
- ‘see myself and say, i forgive you. forgive the years of self hatred.,, this life is more circle than line. we keep growing’ (love letter - andrew cox)
- ‘i learned that language [of my mother]; i’d like to think i’m fluent at it. my sister’s grasp is more remedial, and she spends a lot of time being angry, impatient, and disappointed that maa doesn’t react to our shifting mental health journeys in ways that she understands’ (motherliness - radhiah chowdhury)
- ‘i top and tail with self in a single bad, a euphemism for the foetal position. i spend my time reading through my old diaries. i can only live through myself vicariously. i’m getting intensely jealous of my own memories. all my imaginary friends used to be real’ (i’m so lonely - the bedroom philosopher)

[Mace Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, by far, my absolute favourite collection of writing about voices within mental health 💖💖