Marya Hornbacher discusses new memoir

8th April 2008

Marya Hornbacher discusses new memoir

If you missed the Diane Rehm show this morning, Marya Hornbacher was on the second hour discussing her new book, Madness: A Bipolar Life. Hornbacher, of course, is the author of the widely acclaimed eating disorder memoir Wasted and later authored a great fiction novel, too.

From Publisher’s Weekly:

Hornbacher, who detailed her struggle with bulimia and anorexia in Wasted, now shares the story of her lifelong battle with mental illness, finally diagnosed as rapid cycling type 1 bipolar disorder. Even as a toddler, Hornbacher couldn’t sleep at night and jabbered endlessly, trying to talk her parents into going outside to play in the dark. Other schoolchildren called her crazy. When she was just 10, she discovered alcohol was a good mood stabilizer; by age 14, she was trading sex for pills. In her late teens, her eating disorder landed her in the hospital, followed by another body obsession, cutting. An alcoholic by this point, she was alternating between mania and depression, with frequent hospitalizations. Her doctor explained that not only did the alcohol block her medications, it was up to her to control her mental illness, which would always be with her. This truth didn’t sink in for a long, long time, but when it did, she had a chance for a life outside her local hospital’s psychiatric unit. Hornbacher ends on a cautiously optimistic note—she knows she’ll never lead a normal life, but maybe she could live with the life she does have. Although painfully self-absorbed, Hornbacher will touch a nerve with readers struggling to cope with mental illness.

The show’s website should have an audio clip of the interview available later today.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Book Reviews, Mental Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On April 8th, 2008, Cindy

said:

Gawd.

How much torture does one person get in a lifetime? Is there a cosmic lottery for this stuff?

posted on April 8th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

2 On April 8th, 2008, Colin

I adore her. Can’t wait to read it.

I mean, in that…you know, I wish no one had to go through it, but I’m so impressed by people who turn suffering into art, like Lucy Grealey.

posted on April 8th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

3 On April 8th, 2008, Rachel

I adore her writing, too. Wasted was the first book I really read myself in… it helped me immensely throughout my eating disorder.

posted on April 8th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

4 On April 8th, 2008, Nobody in Particular

I’d never heard of Wasted, nor of the author herself. I was looking at the reviews on Amazon — the negative ones first, because they’re typically the most telling — and quite a few people were claiming with alarm that Wasted isn’t so much a memoir of recovery as a manual on how to continue to starve oneself to death. Such reviewers included therapists who treat people with EDs, and sufferers of EDs themselves.

I don’t get much into memoirs these days, and I am neither anorexic nor bulimic, so I’m not the intended audience, obviously. But it sounds as though this might not be the best of books for someone looking to recover from either disorder.

posted on April 8th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

5 On April 8th, 2008, Rachel

I think Wasted can be used destructively, but it all depends on the motivations of the reader. For me, just reading about someone who really seemed to *get* what it is I was going through was immensely relieving. Anorexia isn’t the most fatal of all psychiatric disorders because its victims starve to death; most commit suicide. Having a sense of support - any support - is beneficial.

posted on April 8th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

6 On April 8th, 2008, thoughtracer

As an Official Manic Depressive, you don’t recover from your illness. You live with it. No matter how many pills you pop, you will still cycle into and out of mania, depression, mixed states and back. The older you get, the worse it gets. The insightful will recognize it and work with it, harnessing the powerful emotions, riding them like a surfer on a tidal wave, mixing meds and more to find a few minutes peace here and there.

The myth of modern day psychiatry is that medicine fixes everything. It does not. Hearers of voices will still hear voices despite pounds of antipsychotics. Those who hallucinate visually will continue to see what is not there. Depressives will still fight off melancholia. The manic will still race mercurially. Medication, “recovery,” for us, is simply the advent of a filter, a sheer weight curtain to hush the frenzied disorder of thoughts and moods.

A book will not trigger us into an ill state, nor will it prevent recovery. The lack of literature, community, like-minded individuals and caring, competent practicioners will. We need more people to speak truthfully, honestly and intelligently about their experiences. We need people who help extinguish stigma by writing about their lives at their most sick and at their most well.

I challenge the notion that people should “recover” from mental illness. Ours is a state of being that is simply different than those who do not exist with a diagnosis. It is painful, frightening, tiring, and can be fatal; but it is also enlightening and soulful. I would not give up my manic depressive life. It has been a rich experience, a full experience. Without the insight I have gained from my illness, I would not be as compassionate toward others, I would not be as willing to listen, to empathize, to know darknesses I needed to have known to be the person I have become, a person I am proud of being.

posted on April 8th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

7 On April 9th, 2008, Rachel2

“I challenge the notion that people should “recover” from mental illness. Ours is a state of being that is simply different than those who do not exist with a diagnosis. It is painful, frightening, tiring, and can be fatal; but it is also enlightening and soulful. I would not give up my manic depressive life. It has been a rich experience, a full experience. Without the insight I have gained from my illness, I would not be as compassionate toward others, I would not be as willing to listen, to empathize, to know darknesses I needed to have known to be the person I have become, a person I am proud of being.” - thoughtracer -

Excellent comment. I agree 100%. I will always live with OCD and Bipolar Disorder. A pill is a band-aid. Symptom management and things like proper rest, exercise, and proper nutrition all help in this battle. The battle is always there, waxing and waning. I could not have stated what you stated better myself, thoughtracer. Excellent anectdote.

posted on April 9th, 2008 at 8:35 am

8 On April 13th, 2008, Kira

I have a mother who has biopolar, and I have been though parts in my life where I would starve myself for a few weeks, I have a sister who has OCD, I know what its like to have to deal with mental illness, but wasted changed my life.
You can live your whole life presuming that things are normal, you can grow up believing that a mother cutting herself and a sister having panic attacks is normal.
but, wasted changed that.
I am only 15, but that book has changed me.
I want to read this new one, but anyone reading this who hasnt read it should.
she is one of the most amazing writers I have ever read.

posted on April 13th, 2008 at 1:42 am

9 On April 21st, 2008, Holly

I have been bulimec since I was 12 years old having learned to manage my weight (or so I thought) by my older brother. Everyone in our family knew yet no one did anything to help us. My brother commited suicide last year.

Now I’ve read Madness and wonder if I have ever been diagnosed correctly. I’ve had countless therapist, have been addicted to drugs, bulimea comes and goes throughout my life and always, always there is food. A good day is one without drugs or vomiting.

My “ism’s” extend to every part of my life. Exercise insanity, workaholism…the list goes on. It is exhausting.

I will ask my current therapist if I might be more then depressed and ADHD.

posted on April 21st, 2008 at 2:43 pm

10 On April 23rd, 2008, Kira

Its so sad to see so many people go though this, we need change in the world.

posted on April 23rd, 2008 at 7:30 pm

11 On May 3rd, 2008, Read an excerpt from Marya Hornbacher’s new memoir » The-F-Word.org said:

[...] Marya Hornbacher’s new memoir of her experiences with bipolar disorder? Now you can read a free excerpt from Madness: A Bipolar [...]

posted on May 3rd, 2008 at 9:39 pm

12 On May 17th, 2008, Chloe

Wasted is the best book on EDs that I have ever read. I have had an ED for five years and so far, despite a lot of treatment both inpatient and out patient and myself choosing to get well, I remain ill. Wasted speaks to me more than any book ever has, I have read it many times. I will defiently get Madness. Marya Hornbacher’s style of writing is so intelligent and thought prvoking, that if Madness is even a fraction of what Wasted is, then it will be brilliant.

posted on May 17th, 2008 at 5:12 am

13 On May 29th, 2008, Jackie

Marya Hornbacher is WONDERFUL!!! I have read all three of her books; 2 memoirs and a novel, and i hear she is working on a second novel… what a brilliant, brilliant writer– she is a poet!

posted on May 29th, 2008 at 9:14 am

14 On June 9th, 2008, Josa76

Madness was a fabulous book. My brother is Bipolar. It’s true. You never recover…you learn to live with it. Or not. Those that think mental illness is a myth should be drawn and quartered.

posted on June 9th, 2008 at 9:12 am