Review of Stacy Pershall's Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl - Book Report/Review Example

Running Head: LOUD IN THE HOUSE OF MYSELF Book Review on Stacy Pershall’s Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl Book Review on Stacy Pershall’s Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl Stacy Pershall's memoir is an inspirational masterpiece packed with the blood, sweat, tears, and pains of battling mental health. It chronicles her growth from a self-proclaimed “strange” girl to an irrepressibly artistic young woman. It tracks her depressing and chaotic life as she struggles to endure the manifold psychological maladies that threaten to devour her being.

The book is a personal account of her battles with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, anorexia, bulimia and numerous unsuccessful attempts at suicide. The young Pershall tries to inspect these psychological disorders in a wider perspective, as she finds treatment through dialectical behavior therapy and tattooing as a way to repossess her body and make it her own again. The book offers delicate sensory details that effectively attach the author’s insights into the reader's reality, but however warped and displaced by a twist of her unpredictable and confusing biochemistry common to those with the disorders.

Pershall accomplishes what is almost unfeasible — survival on a bleak journey to functionality, with energy, frankness, and acceptance of both her demons and angels in her quest for inner peace. On each page shines forth her humor and cleverness, as well as her courage and kindness. The experiences in between are shocking, agonizing, pretentious, striking and occasionally comical. Pershall's accounts may be rather upsetting to anyone unaware of the ugly realities that several individuals with mental disorders cope with each day.

Nonetheless, on numerous instances, adolescent girls submit to what is expected of them in their social orders. In Pershall’s book, she conveys the ups and downs of life’s cruel realities that the majority of us choose to overlook, shun and make something out as an attempt to seek attention and put themselves on the spotlight. As she clearly describes her experience of suicide: “But my depression obscured the truth.  This is why I feel frustrated now when I hear people referring to suicide as a self-centered act: of course it is.

 Nobody would commit suicide if the pain of being inside herself, the agony of the sleepless, tortured hours spent watching the world get smaller and uglier, were bearable or could be relieved by other people telling her how they wanted her to feel” (Pershall, 2011).   Loud in the House of Myself is especially intended to provide hope for those at the brink of a fall. Every memoir is rich with compassion, integrity and high spirits as Pershall treads on a dark tunnel of uncertainties. The Memoir of a Strange Girl makes every reader realize what it was like to wear Pershall’s shoes, how she walks in them, stumbles, rises again and still finally emerges victorious over her inner self.

Without being a pedantic sentimentalist, Pershall delivers her memoirs in a down-to-earth detail of the real torments of mental sickness and the defeat of power over oneself. As readers turn through pages, we can only imagine the moments of agony spent bringing together and reliving these horrible experiences. Yet, the effort seems to personify victory — victory not of conquering her mental illness, but a victory of acceptance, of learning to live her own life gradually in her own skin, which she manifests superficially by tattooing her body.

All through the book is a recuperation of the lost concept of beauty by describing her multiple tattoos, each one a healing experience in itself and a recreation of her skin as “a place in which I could live” (Pershall, 2011). As I neared the end of her book, I wept and realized the excruciating pain she had to endure to bring this amazing book into completion. I only have one word for the author, that is, admiration. And to all those searching for a book to read about the ordinary — perfect lives, fairy tales, and happily-ever-afters, I strongly recommend you read this unnerving, eye-opening reality book, Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl.

And if you have struggled with any type of self-discontent, reckless behaviors, feelings of worthlessness and discrimination, this is certainly the right book for you. Pershall has it all wrapped up in her realistic, delightfully written memoir. This review will seem lacking if information on Pershall’s maladies will not be explored; therefore it is pertinent to explain the nature of these maladies to make us understand what it is like living in her skin. Formerly called manic-depressive illness, bipolar affective disorder is described as “a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function” (NIMH, 2008a).

The cause of bipolar disorder (BD) may be attributed to genetics, brain structure and function, anxiety disorders, phobias, and other mental and neurologic deficits (NIMH, 2008b). The tendency of bipolar disorder running in families is great, yet genetics cannot be named as a single cause of the illness (NIMH, 2008a). Studies have discovered that neuroanatomic structures that regulate moods are likely to be involved, and that brain lesions resulting from an early brain injury may contribute to the development of the illness (Geller & DelBello, 2003).

Anxiety disorders, phobias, and developmental dysfunctions, all play a great role in the development of the illness (NIMH, 2008b). Bipolar disorder causes sensational mood swings, from extremely “high” or irritable, to miserable and hopeless, and then back to “high” again, usually with periods of regular moods in between (NIMH, 2008a). These periods of ups and downs are called manic episodes and depression, while a combination of the two is called mixed episodes (NIMH, 2008a). In Loud in the House of Myself, Pershall having dealt with the issue of depression too many times, perfectly describes a depressed person:  A depressed person is selfish because her self, the very core of who she is, will not leave her alone, and she can no more stop thinking about this self and how to escape it than a prisoner held captive by a sadistic serial killer can forget about the person who comes in to torture her every day.

 Her body is brutalized by her mind. It hurts to breathe, sleep, eat, walk, think. The gross maneuverings of her limbs are so overwhelming, so wearing, that the fine muscle movements or quickness of wit necessary to write, to actually say something, are completely out of the question” (Pershall, 2011). The symptoms of bipolar disorder may easily be mistaken for symptoms of another developmental disorder, or mere normal emotions and behaviors of teenagers and children (Wilkinson, Taylor, & Holt, 2002).

Borderline personality disorder is a condition in which people have continuing patterns of unbalanced or chaotic views, decision, or values about oneself or others. Pershall outlines this disorder as: Borderline means you’re one of those girls…who walk around wearing long sleeves in the summer because you’ve carved up your forearms over your boyfriend. You make pathetic suicidal gestures and write bad poetry about them, listen to Ani DiFranco albums on endless repeat, end up in the emergency room for overdoses, scare off boyfriends by insisting they tell you that they love you five hundred times a day and hacking into their email to make sure they’re not lying, have a police record for shoplifting, and your tooth enamel is eroded from purging.

You’ve had five addresses and eight jobs in three years, your friends are avoiding your phone calls, you’re questioning your sexuality, and the credit card companies are after you. It took a lot of years to admit that I was exactly that girl, and that the diagnostic criteria for the disorder were essentially an outline of my life (Pershall, 2011). People with Borderline Personality Disorder BPD are unsure of their identities. Consequently, their attention and values can quickly change. BPD persons may likely perceive things in extremes, for example, either all good or all bad.

BPD is an all-or-nothing state. Their views of other people may change quickly. Unexpected swings in emotions often cause strong or weak social connections. BPD people experience: fear of being neglected; feelings of meaninglessness and monotony; regular exhibition of unacceptable rage; impetuosity with money, substance abuse, sexual affairs, gluttony, stealing; intolerance of being unaccompanied; recurring crises and self-injurious behaviors. Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a revolutionary cure that can effectively treat BPD (Blais, Smallwood, Groves, Rivas-Vazquez, 2008) as evidenced by Pershall.

DBT focuses on improving behaviors in reducing suicidal behaviors; reducing behaviors that obstruct therapies; decreasing behaviors that decreases quality of life; diminishing and coping with post-traumatic stress reactions; developing respect for others; attainment of appropriate behavioral skills necessary for social communications and inner peace. Dialectical behavior therapy, along with psychiatric help, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and of course, moral and emotional support from family members and friends could successfully improve and treat bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder, provided that there is continuity (Blais, Smallwood, Groves, Rivas-Vazquez, 2008) References Blais, M. A., Smallwood P.

, Groves J. E., & Rivas-Vazquez, R. A. (2008). Personality and Personality Disorders. In T. Stern, J. Rosenbaum, M. Fava, J. Biederman, & S. Rauch (Eds.). Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry (1st Ed.) (Chap. 39). Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier. Geller, B. & DelBello, M.P. (2003). Bipolar disorder in childhood and early adolescence. New York: Guilford Press. National Institute of Mental Health. (2008a). Bipolar disorder. Retrieved April 14, 2012 from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder/nimhbipolar.

pdf National Institute of Mental Health. (2008b). Bipolar disorder in children and teens. Retrieved April 14, 2012 from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder-in-children-and-teens-brochure.pdf Pershall, S. (2011). Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Wilkinson, G.B., Taylor, P., & Holt, J.R. (2002). Bipolar Disorder in Adolescence: Diagnosis and Treatment. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 24 (4), 348.