How Pershall’s Memoir Reflects Her Emotional State
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How Pershall’s Memoir Reflects Her Emotional State
Pershall, in her memoir, describes the emotional experiences she underwent through as she struggled with borderline personality disorder and bipolar disease. The organization of the memoir enables the reader to understand the emotions and feelings of Pershall. Her life with mental illness begins when she is 13- a time where adolescents struggle with identity and desire to fit into a social system. Even though she is a super-intelligent girl, she faces social isolation. At church, they were being taught that mental illness is an evil condition. She became active in church, which did not work for her. Her peers at school made fun of her body, and her first boyfriend told her that she is fat. This brought emotional stress to her as she embarked on starvation to lose her weight. These events came before she was diagnosed with BPD and BD after failed attempt to commit suicide. Pershall views these events as the factors that led to the escalation of symptoms of her mental illness. These include the feeling of desperation, hopelessness, unloved, and suicidal. The structure of the memoir is such that Pershall describes the conditions she lived in and how these conditions affected her emotional and psychological well-being before she eventual meeting some people along the way, who showed her love and saved her life. The organizational structure enables readers to understand Pershall’s frame of mind.
Stacy Pershall currently works as a teacher at Gotham Writers’ Workshop to assist people with mental illness write their story. As someone who struggled with mental illnesses, she gives hope to persons with similar experiences that mental illnesses can be managed and they can still pursue their dreams. People with mental illness should avoid stigma but take bold actions to control their own destiny. Pershall asks these people not to be afraid of seeking medical and psychological support from experts as this would enable them to overcome emotions and become productive individuals.