I have a love hate relationship with books that deal with psychological issues. As someone who has dealt with various diagnosis, prescriptions and failed therapy sessions sometimes they hit a little too close to home.
Sara Benincasa’s memoir chronicles her journey through crippling panic attacks that leave her temporarily unable to leave her college apartment. A particularly nervous child, Sara’s book begins with her going to an Italian ER for a panic attack while on a school trip and follows her into college at Emerson.
At twenty-one she becomes unable to leave her apartment, or even leaving her bed. She stops taking showers and makes up excuses for why she can’t go out with friends. After a worried friend contacts her parents she is ushered out of her apartment (where she has been peeing in soup bowls out of fear that the bathroom has bad vibes) and back into her childhood home in New Jersey.
It’s always nice when other people’s particular brand of crazy outweighs your own.
Sara has a lovely sense of humor about her past situation. She is still afraid of public transportation and has a list of her techniques for getting through traumas like driving. She is honest about her reliance on prescription drugs, therapy and parental support system.
I’ve always like memoirs written by the unfamous and this sweet story of a girl trying to find her way into the land of the sane was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
