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As one who knows well what it's like writing with disabilities--doing
anything with a mental/learning disability--I am compelled to give
you a few links and resources that have helped me make it.
I hope at least one will help you as much and as well. Or better, I
hope one of the pieces of disability writing will entertain you, make
you laugh, make you feel.
As a writer with adult ADD, I do not easily subscribe to
the term "disabilities." You and I are not disabled, even
if we are a bit disheveled, even if we often feel broken,
out of sorts, or unable. In fact, we may be what I call
hyper-able.
I want these pages of mental disability writing--or
about writing with intellectual disabilities--to honor
these hyper-abilities, to revere these stirrings of
restlessness, as much as I want to provide good,
honorable sources and resources for writers with
disabilities.
And I hope to come up with a better name or label for
those of us who identify with the differences that have
us feeling like a vases with no flowers, race cars with
no drivers, idiots savant with no savant.
This means an effort which will take a while, as I do my
traditional work in between bouts of research and
exploration. In other words, this part of my writing
site will be under construction for now.
Please feel absolutely free to email me with any
concerns, comments, or complaints.
Well, er, I could do without the latter, but do what you
will: these pages are for you. For us. The gifted ones.
And I could use the break from the intensity of
hyper-abilities I apply 16-20 hours a day, wrapped up
in investigating madness and manias or in writing (for a
living) with a mad and manic mindfulness that goes on
and on and on....
Gradin, Temple. Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from My Life With
Autism.
(recommended by the NDCWU**)
CHRONIC DEPRESSION/SUICIDAL NATURE
Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar.
(written about and by a young woman--and stunningly adept creative
writer--whom we lost when she successfully committed suicide after
numerous attempts)
Wurtzel, Elizabeth. Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America.
(the title says it all, but the writer covers even more--in great, even
severe, depth)
CUTTING and SELF-MUTILATION
Greenberg, Joanne. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.
(again the desperate need to feel/escape the mind)
Jameson, Kay Redfield. An Unquiet Mind: a Memoir of Moods and
Madness.
(an exploration of the insidious highs and trenchant lows that resist
treatment and at the same time cry for it, written by a Ph.D. with Manic
Depression)
Kettlewell, Caroline. Skin Game: a Memoir.
(revealing discussions and descriptions of what is to be a cutter, one
who is compelled to cut herself to gain imperative relief)
GENERAL MENTAL ILLNESS
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted.
(memoir of young woman institutionalized for mental imbalance,
written with a dark humor that is subtle, penetrating, and brilliant)
Milford, Nancy. Zelda. (biography chronicling the life and descent of
multi-talented, multi-afflicted Zelda Fitzgerald)
MPD, MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER
Chase, Truddi. When Rabbit Howls.
(powerful rendering of the evolution of a child growing up with MPD,
Multiple Personality Disorder)
Schreiber, Flora Rheita. Sybil.
(the definitive MPD story)
OCD, OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER
Sedaris, David. "A Plague of Tics." In Naked.
(utterly hysterical short story told from the point of view of a boy with
OCD--who licks light switches to keep his disorder content and
counting)
Wilensky, Amy. Passing For Normal: A Memoir of Compulsion.
Handler, Lowell. Twitch and Shout: A Touretter's Tale.**
Morgan, Emma. A Stillness Built of Motion: Living with Tourette's**
Attention Deficit Disorder, and Dyslexia.**
Emery, Dr. Kevin Ross. Managing the Gift: Alternative Approaches for Attention Deficit Disorder.
Jameson, Kay Redfield. Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.
Kelly, Kate, and Peggy Mundo. You Mean I'm Not Stupid, Lazy, or Crazy?!: A Self-help Book for Adults
with Attention Deficit Disorder.
Nettle, Daniel. Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity, and Human Nature.
Phillips, Deborah, et.al.. Writing Well: Creative Writing and Mental Health.
Traustadottir, Ranveig, and Kelley Johnson. Women with Intellectual Disabilities: Finding a Place in the
World.
Weiss, Lynn, Ph.D. ADD and Creativity.
ADDitude Magazine
Breath and Shadow: A Journal of Disability Culture and Literature
CHADD--Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
DBSA--Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
DPI--Disabled Peoples' International
International Dyslexia Organization
Life with TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury)
The Multiple Journals
Multiple Personality and Dissociation Book List
NADC (National Arts and Disability Center)
NCLD--National Center for Learning Disabilities
TD+ --Tourette's Disorder: Information, Support, Hope
Writing Works: for Memory, Healing, and Art's Sake
compiled a list of writers' works about disabilities. In my list, where I use a recommendation (that I have not read yet), I
will mark the entry with **.
psychotherapy, or in anything related to the profession.
These are merely recommended by one who is fascinated by and immersed in the details of mental disability
writing...and by one who is, in short, fascinated enough with her owned damned ADD self that she reads anything to do
with mental disorder.
Hope this is enough of a disclaimer that I don't stay awake obsessing on my own self-involved hamster wheel of insanity.
No more than I do already, anyway.
clip, and background art in the RoxanneWrites
HOME page for art credits section.
