All In Her Head: A Novel

(Paperback)

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As a young girl growing up in the Midwest, Sunny experiences the shame and stigma of scandal when her father is banned from their church for having an affair with the pastors best friends wife. As Sunny grows older, she begins to build the life shes always wanted: she marries, buys a house, enrolls in graduate school, and soon has a baby on the way. But when she experiences the psychological phenomena of orgasmic labor, it triggers a chain of bizarre events, and she gradually descends into a world of delusion and paranoia. As Sunny struggles to separate the real from the unreal, she relies upon friends and family to ground her in truth and loveand keep her from going over the edge into madness.

Reviews

What a vivid and riveting central image: the explosion of orgiastic feeling concomitant with childbirthphysicality that leads to a mental split between real and delusion to become an obsession that is almost like a religious stigmata. For the reader, the protagonist becomes lovable in her tenacious struggle. The precision of the description of her delusional states is very helpful, whether for a reader wanting to learn or a reader wanting to empathize. Judith Carrington, media and advocacy group chair, National Alliance on Mental Illness, New York City The book enthralled from the beginning to the end. It impressed upon me Sunny's struggle to know "real" from "unreal." On a personal level, I feel proud to know her story. Sarah Kennedy McPhee, MPH, Sexuality Educator, New Hampshire What is real and what's a delusion An erotic, intimate, tantalizing journey through a life like no other. Grant Thorsson, author of Bipolar for Beginners There is something in this memoir that will speak to each of us. The protagonist's development and upbringing is arresting, and the descent into psychosis is real, maddening, and mind-numbing. The difficulties that the protagonist faces and often surmounts, are laid out in an explicit manner that is unmistakably personal. There are insights in this novel that demand thoughtful consideration, especially about the ways and depth with which we affect each other. Frederick Naftolin, MD, PhD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynocology and Director of Reproductive Biology Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynocology, New York University

Author Bio

Im a mother who writes and lives in Brooklyn, New York, where I landed by way of New Hampshire. I was inspired to write the book All in Her Head: A Novel after my diagnosis of severe mental illness and my battle with postpartum depression, psychosis, and delusional disorder. I come from a privileged, educated, and stable home; I grew up attending a small, private Christian school that my parents and their friends founded in our attic in Topeka, Kansas. Thankfully, medication is effective for me and I wasnt criminalized for my illness. On my journey, the thing I needed was more role models to explain how to share. I needed to hear stories of people who told their stories, and see more stories explaining how to teach others to listen. This would have helped so much during my dark days and then during my early days of insight. Ive spent the last decade writing a narrative I can live with. Now that Im finished with this story, I can work on what I want: mothering and writing about things that arent centered on me. Im sharing this story with the aspiration that others will share my real hope for building a reality that is a place we want to live.