It is horrible and it does not discriminate. Think before you judge-mental illness is not something that can be cured by 'just trying to be happy' and it is not chosen.

I recommend that everybody reads this book, not only for the story but for the insight it can give you into the lives of the families. Mental illness affects everybody in the vicinity and there is nobody to blame. Every day is a struggle having to watch what you say, how you say it and trying to avoid dangerous emotional explosions. Living with somebody with mental illnesses is something I don't think is often thought about, but it is like living with a stranger in a loved ones body. My family has never really spoken about it, at my sister's wishes, but secrets like these have a nasty habit of getting out whether or not you want them to. The guilt, the fear and the helplessness like Carleigh I resorted to therapy to learn how to cope with my new reality.

Most shocking to me was the profound effect it had on everything I did, it began to consume my every waking hour. My younger sister was diagnosed with serious mental illnesses a few years previously. This story was eerily close to my own and it made me incredibly emotional. Some run away from the unknown, others ignore its very existence and many just flounder around trying desperately to help when they don't know how. This story did not dance over the subject of mental health or the multiple different effects it has on the people who love them. It is short but the story stays with you, it took me only around a half hour but I know it will be one I remember. There was no fluffy description that bore no meaning to the story, everything was relevant and realistic. It is written in verse which I think makes the message so much more poignant and easy to absorb. It documents her struggle with trying to keep her life together and shoulder responsibilities that no fourteen year old should have to bear. This book is wholly unique in the way that although it addresses mental illness, the main character is not the one suffering.Ĭarleigh’s younger brother is diagnosed with a severe mental illness and as a result, she becomes almost shunned by her family who devote all their energy to trying to control and calm him down-leaving Carleigh to fend for herself. This book was an incredibly hard book for me to get through, not because I disliked it in any way but because it hit almost too painfully close to home.

I, Girl X by Annalise Grey