Review: Mind Without a Home by Kristina Morgan

Mind Without A Home

A Memoir of Schizophrenia

Author:  Kristina Morgan

Published:  August 2013

Publisher:  Hazelden

Pages:  260

Contains a DSM-IV Criteria for Schizophrenia

Edition:  ARC

Source:  A complimentary copy was provided by TLC Book Tours and the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.  Receipt thereof bears no influence over my opinion nor this review.

Experience the inner world of a woman with schizophrenia in this brutally honest, lyrical memoir. Kristina Morgan takes us inside her head to experience the chaos of the schizophrenic mind. With the intimacy of private journal-like entries and the language of a poet, she carries us from her childhood to her teen years when hallucinations began to hijack her mind and into adulthood where she began abusing alcohol to temper the punishing voices that only she could here. This is no formulaic tale of tragedy and triumph: We feel Kristina’s hope as she pursues an education, career and builds friendships—and her devastation as the insistent voices convince her to throw it all away. Woven through the pages of her life are stories of recovery from alcoholism and her journey to live a fulfilling life.

My Thoughts:

Mind Without a Home is a memoir that reads like a journal.  Sometimes disjointed and ragged, often emotionally jarring; Morgan opens her heart and pours it all out on the page allowing the reader personal insight into the disturbing elements of a disease that is so often misunderstood.

Imagine hearing voices that aren't there, seeing figures no one else does, feeling so alone and depressed.  To share what Morgan really hears and sees takes years and several attempts at suicide before she finally admits to herself that she is ill, mentally ill, and needs medication to help her.  For years this very thought and the fear of it thwarted any attempts to help her.

"Men are everywhere.  Their ears attach to the walls.  Their eyes to knobs.  Their palms to grass.  I think all this and it makes sense to me.....

I was not happy with the outcome.  I didn't think I needed to be here.  It didn't matter that the other realities were confusing me, or that I was being berated by voices.  There were common occurrences in my life that I was learning to live with.  However, I hadn't slept for days.  The voices were keeping me up, and in my tiredness, I was having a hard time of fighting back." (pgs 172-173 ARC)

It is amazing how she did manage to cope despite the months in hospital, the alcoholism, the catatonic states.  Morgan enrolled in a creative writing program during which her talent for poetry emerged and it is evident in her writing.

Mind Without a Home is not an easy read due to the subject matter and the manner in which it is written.  But the very nature of Morgan's illness becomes so much a parallel to the manner in which this memoir reads.  How better to form an idea of what she must have gone through and what she still battles to this day.  Mind Without a Home is naked, transparent, and disturbing in its blatant reality.  A true eye-opener.

Meet the Author:

Kristina Morgan is a first-time author. She is currently married, working, and managing her co-occurring disorders, schizophrenia and alcoholism with the Twelve Step recovery. She lives in Arizona.

Visit Kristina’s blog at MindWithoutAHome.com.

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