tani reviewed I'm Not Crazy: The True Story of Frances Deitrick's Flight from a Psychiatric Snake Pit to Freedom on
Helpful Score: 1
This is a fascinating true story with a happy ending. I couldn't put it down and read it through the very day it came.
At the age of 25, on her way to confront her ex-fiance, the author was in a car accident and afterwards began acting irrationally. She ended up in a mental hospital, where she tried in vain to convince the staff that she was not insane. She was forced to submit to unwanted medication, strip searches, and physical abuse. She kept insisting that her problems were physical, but no one believed her. Nevertheless, she put up a good fight for her rights; you feel what a strong person she really was, in spite of her mental confusion. Finally, one doctor learned of her symptoms and tests not done before showed that she had a rare brain tumor, which was treated, and she was at last free to go home and resume normal life.
Although I couldn't help feeling great indignation reading about some of the mean or stupid staff who mistreated her, as a whole, her story is empowering, because she WINS!
At the age of 25, on her way to confront her ex-fiance, the author was in a car accident and afterwards began acting irrationally. She ended up in a mental hospital, where she tried in vain to convince the staff that she was not insane. She was forced to submit to unwanted medication, strip searches, and physical abuse. She kept insisting that her problems were physical, but no one believed her. Nevertheless, she put up a good fight for her rights; you feel what a strong person she really was, in spite of her mental confusion. Finally, one doctor learned of her symptoms and tests not done before showed that she had a rare brain tumor, which was treated, and she was at last free to go home and resume normal life.
Although I couldn't help feeling great indignation reading about some of the mean or stupid staff who mistreated her, as a whole, her story is empowering, because she WINS!
