Manoroga Gellabahude? Sneha, Navakarnataka Publications Private Limited; 208 pp; Rs 75.
This is the autobiography (published in 1996) of a woman, who suffered bipolar affective disorder or manic depressive psychosis for a long period and overcame it after a prolonged treatment. At a time when people are still hesitant even to meet a psychiatrist Sneha has shown the courage to pen her autobiography.
Sneha first suffered this disorder when she was studying second PU in a residential school. Though the atmosphere there was very pleasant and enjoyable she had fallen a victim to the disorder for some reason she has not explained in her autobiography.
She obviously discontinued her education and returned to her parents.
For nearly 20 years she suffered the disorder. But with prolonged treatment and with the help of psychiatrists she could overcome the disorder. Not only that, she could study Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) for three years in private and pass it. Sneha appeared for BA exam, nearly 14 years after she discontinued her study. She married her relative and conceived two daughters, has given them good education and is leading a normal life now.
Bipolar affective disorder or manic depressive psychosis is a mood disorder. According to psychiatrists, a patient with bipolar disorder exhibits the symptoms of mania and depression either alternatively or simultaneously.
These moods are separated by normal mood. The patient also exhibits a suicidal tendency often.
Sneha underwent all these phases and attempted suicides several times during her period of illness.
Each time she had a miraculous escape from the jaws of death. Once she took over 70 gardinal tablets and 50 sleeping tablets with a determination to end her life. She planned it in such a way that none should reach her for over two hours so that the entire body should get poisoned with the medicine she would take. Still she survived.
In this autobiography, she recounts every detail of her traumatic years, the humiliation she had suffered during that period, her thoughts, the conflict between the healthy mind and mania or depression and so on. She became so conscious about her illness that she could recognise when she would slip into mania or depression.
But she was helpless. She had no other alternative but to slip into the grip of mania or depression because people around her never recognised when she was normal and when abnormal. Finally her determination to overcome bipolar disorder, prolonged medication and the cooperation of psychiatrists helped her succeed in winning the disorder.
The narration, which runs like a soliloquy, is gripping. Starting from her first encounter with the disorder when she was in second PUC and ending in her success in overcoming the problem, the autobiography also draws the attention of the readers to many issues related to the condition of mentally-ill people.
In America, a similar autobiography of Clifford Whittingham Beers, who suffered depression and paranoia, could change the perception of the people towards mentally ill people and improve the conditions in asylums. His autobiography ‘A Mind That Found Itself ’ (1908) helped him initiate American mental hygiene movement.
Here, going by the narration by Sneha, the condition in asylums is not as bad as it was in America. Sometimes Sneha had felt that she was more comfortable in mental hospitals than in her home.
People easily recognise physical illness and sympathise with patients. But people cannot recognise mental illnesses. Even if they recognise, they reject the patients as useless and unworthy. Sneha points out that these mentally ill people continuously struggle within to overcome their problem. Apart from medication and doctor’s attention patients need sympathy and support from family members. Family must help the patient overcome the conflict within and to succeed in leading a healthy life. In the autobiography, Sneha has appealed to the readers to extend such support to the patients around them. For Sneha’s autobiography, the greatest reward may be the change in the outlook of the people towards mentally ill people like it happened in America where Clifford Beers’ autobiography helped in improving the condition in asylums.
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