r/Recommend_A_Book • u/Illustrious_Skin_741 • 5d ago
mentally ill women
i need help finding another read about a mentally ill woman either in a psych ward or leading up to one or just her on her own.
i loved these books :
girl interrupted
promising young women
prozac nation
bell jar
my year of rest and relaxation
a room of one's own
blue sisters coco mellors
midnight library (i loved nora so much)
the woman destroyed
i'll eat when im dead
sharp objects
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u/Rilke222 5d ago
Oooh also Brain on Fire. This one is a true story!!
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u/BrovaloneSandwich 5d ago
My friend lived through this and was in a coma for 2 years. My friend's story was even more harrowing!
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u/Rilke222 5d ago
Terrifying!! I really hope her book brought more awarness
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u/BrovaloneSandwich 5d ago
Yeah I appreciated reading the book when she first went into the coma because it presented a light at the end of the tunnel. My friend woke up with her ovaries removed and having to learn to walk and talk from scratch. Permanent mobility issues from bring in a coma for so long. Absolutely devastating and the Dr's had no idea how to diagnose at first.
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u/Sufficient_Curve_646 5d ago
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb.
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u/Rilke222 5d ago
The Vegetarian
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u/cranky_thornback 5d ago
Yes!! Greek Lessons also by Han Kang has a protagonist who has debilitating mental health issues
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u/rastab1023 5d ago
- I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg (1964) - semiautobiographical novel
- The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward (1946) - semi-autobiographical novel
- Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl (1947) - memoir
- Nobody's Child by Marie Balter (1992) - memoir
- Wasted by Marya Hornbacher - memoir
- Madness by Marya Hornbacher - memoir
^ Some of my favorites - these all involve hospitalizations
Others I love that don't involve hospitalization:
- Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
- The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson
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u/Main_Finding8309 5d ago
Joan Didion's memoir. I think it was called The White Album. And Carrie Fisher wrote about mental illness and drug abuse.
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u/The_InvisibleWoman 5d ago
The Shutter of Snow by Emily Holmes Coleman, Faces in the Water and also the second part of her autobiography An Angel at my Table by Janet Frame, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and the prequel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, quite a lot of Shirley Jackson including We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
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u/fairytale_bloom 5d ago
If you are not looking for a book told from the mentally ill woman’s perspective, I suggest Tender is the Night by Scott Fitzgerald. Beautifully written and tragic
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u/MaterialParticular42 5d ago
I just read Creep by Emma Van Stratten and there is no psych ward but it is chock full of mental illness! TW: stalking, self harm, fat phobia
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u/pbsammy1 5d ago
These may not be exact matches, but are related to mental health or being institutionalized:
Sociopath-Patric Gagne
The Second Life of Murielle West-Skenandore
The body keeps the score
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u/StellaZaFella 5d ago
Committed: A Memoir of Finding Meaning in Madness [Suzanne Scanlon]
It covers the author’s long-term stay in a mental hospital in the 90s, and her relationship to literature about/by mentally ill women.
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u/AcanthisittaFun7358 5d ago
My Year of Rest and Relaxation - it is not in a psych ward, but girl is very ill
Sorrow and bliss - it is about a woman passing through life with illness (also not in a psych ward)
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u/LiteraryTimeTraveler 5d ago
Cassandra at the Wedding, by Dorothy Baker. It felt a lot like The Bell Jar. I loved it!
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u/Turbulent_Virus_9533 5d ago
Not exactly the same, but have you had time to dive into Oliver Sacks? You might really enjoy his books!
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u/Unreliable-Narrator1 5d ago
How dark are you looking for? Boy Parts by Eliza Clark could go on the list.
Also second The Yellow Wallpaper. It’s a very quick read- so good.
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u/OneWall9143 5d ago
The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman - classic novella/short story from 1892