For Endings to End Beginnings Have to Begin

ISBN: 9781847471093
Published: 2007
Pages: 88
Key Themes: borderline personality disorder,

Description

For Endings to End Beginnings Have to Begin was written to show how a person diagnosed with the dehabilitating mental illness Borderline Personality Disorder thinks. It describes what it is like to be given a label that is classed as untreatable and how sufferers are often failed by the mental health system. It is an amazingly honest and at times emotional autobiography, portraying how a young woman can overcome her 'untreatable' illness, allowing her to live a life that she had never dreamed possible. Teresa wants to prove that just because she has a mental illness she is still a person with all the thoughts, feelings and needs that everyone as a human is entitled to.

About the Author

Teresa became entangled in the mental health services shortly after she left secondary school when she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. To come to terms with her illness Teresa became involved in volunteering and in 2000 won the volunteer of the year award. She is part of The Prince's Trust volunteer programme has gone onto study a City and Guilds teaching certificate which allows her to run mental health awareness workshops. Teresa suffers from acute asthma, it is thought that the steroids she has taken to combat her asthma lead to a toxic reaction which in turn lead to Teresa becoming psychotic and depressed. With the support of health services she was able to get a job in a nursing home. Teresa hopes that by writing this book she will become an ambassador for people with mental health issues and hopes to dispel some of the myths and stigma surrounding this.

Book Extract

Following the trauma of the previous two years with mum I found it very difficult to settle back into family life as well as starting a new school. Dad wasn't the person I remembered which was really difficult. I yearned for him to hug me but it never happened so I learnt not to expect it. My sister was doing things which always resulted in my getting the blame, and I was beginning to find life hard going with my stepmother.

Although I put a lot of effort in to my schoolwork I was very unhappy and felt like school was my respite from my increasingly strained home life. After a while my unhappiness was picked up on at school and I was approached by one of my teachers. Unfortunately I couldn't really say much because I had been told that family problems were to stay within the family and not to go to 'outsiders'. I was advised to keep a diary as a way of getting my feelings out, which worked until it was found.