Greetings,
About my first book, The Wellness Diaries, I have heard a few people say that it’s very sad.
Well, true…It spans about a ten year period from 2001-2011. I told it just how it happened in that time frame. It describes my days of diagnosis and battle with Paranoid Schizophrenia, which is no joke by itself. I first started typing the rough draft in May of 2010. The months before that though, when considering starting a book, I was toying with the title “Diaries of The Schizophrenic Vegan, “similar to the title from the days of the SGV blog, for those who were with me then.) Maybe that one is even more catchy…However, I decided that I didn’t like this title. I didn’t like what it affirmed to me and my outcome for the illness. Maybe I would not have been able to fully recover, had I kept that title. For the longest time, until very recently, I absolutely refused to use the term Schizophrenia. It was virtually a taboo swear word of the worst kind to me. I did not like what it affirmed. Now, it is far enough behind me that I am confident enough to use the word as needed.
Early on in the journey, while unsure of all the details, I had decided that while I had a lot of growing to fit, and things to learn, I discovered an invaluable recipe that I knew was working wonders for me, which had great potential for others also. The Wellness Diaries is a fitting title of my overall outlook for the well-being of myself, others, the direction that mental health is going, and even a positive outlook for the healing of the earth. Is there work to be done? …Holy smokes…. You have no idea…
However, we are doing it! It is happening, and there is progress being made.
Yes, the book introduces a new standard using guidelines such as a starch-based diet, sound sleep in duration and quality, sufficient outside time, a slightly different approach for exercise and activity, and time spent in nature, etc. While I feel that these are sound guidelines for everyone, it is very likely that these guidelines will be especially effective for people who suffer from biological brain disorders (mental illness).
The book is of course a memoir, and it ends on a positive note about my own life, and hints toward the reason I feel optimistic about mental health for the future. But yes, any journey through Paranoid Schizophrenia, over a ten year period, told just how it is, is no cake walk. Indeed, the first part of the book is sad.
I just felt that I should zoom in on some details there.
Thank you for reading. Keep up the good work everyone!
Click the image to get the book:
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