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Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing

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Two thirds of the way though he finds a psychiatrist who gives house room to Clare’s ideas on treatment and says ‘At last I was being listened to’. I understand the frustration but the others listened too, they just didn’t agree. The last third is least good, with some journalism on austerity which I agree with but is quite light weight and Open Dialogue, which seems to be the solution, but is barely mentioned. Mental illness is deeply complex and contested and it is too much to ask that he can provide the answers. The writing was almost bleak in its honesty, raw in its sincerity and brutally self-effacing. Clare's description of his "breakdown" or manic episode which resulted in him being Sectioned under the Mental Health Act is heartbreakingly authentic and I feel his bravery in exposing not only his experience but that of his wife/his children/his friends/his family. I thought that most of this book was astounding. I have never read a more enthralling and completely terrifying account of psychotic delusions. What is almost harder to bear, clearly for him, is the impact on his wife and family. His account of his treatment by psychiatrists is highly critical, while much more praise is given to others in mental health services and especially the police. He is also interesting how his class and education help him elude services which probably wouldn’t happen for others. I absolutely loved this book. A compassionate and thought provoking exploration of “madness”. Stories such as this are not told often enough and it was beautifully told. Although it is an account from his perspective, he does show how difficult it is for friends and family... I thought it was telling how his partner Rebecca only learns much later of some of the things he has done (about which he says very little overall). I was particularly interested in the experiences of his stepson, and his stepson's father...contrasting perhaps with the simpler experience of his six year old son. He doesn't quite talk of the 'positives' or things about himself which might be attractive but I wondered about his partner's acquisition of a husky puppy (a puppy! a husky!) whilst he is in hospital and they seem destined to cement their separation, and later their cosy evening routine involving a glass of red wine.... but she is adamant that there is no negotiation on him continuing to take medication.

Heavy Light Album Review | Pitchfork U.S. Girls: Heavy Light Album Review | Pitchfork

This is a striking book: the title, the cover, and the intensity of the first part of the book which embeds the reader in Horatio Clare's experience of mania. That was a difficult read, it was overwhelming: "Give us a break" I thought... but that's the point, he didn't get a break, he largely didn't recognise the need for a break and he conveys all this so effectively. To the reader, privy to his thoughts, he is clearly 'mad' but as is clear from the account and his much later discussions with those involved, he was also skilled at withholding all his perceptions from others. But eventually his admission to hospital is legally compelled. The second half is incredibly engaging. Clare describes everything in a way that makes it easy to relate to, or to sympathise with, or at least to understand, from both his perspective and those around him. Parts of his experience, I could definitely feel myself relating to. In particular, the moment when he is in the gallery, when he feels like everyone around him knows he is from the psychiatric hospital, that everyone is hyperaware of him. Same feelings, different reasons for them. And when he goes on to talk about how he will not let the breakdown define him, that resonated deeply with me. I will define myself, not let those things that others see as 'abnormal' define me. Erasing the line between normal and abnormal, and the sentiment of healing, not curing, is something I think needs to be better taken onboard. Oppenheimer: When is Oppenheimer streaming, Oppenheimer film length, expected DVD and BluRay release date I found the first part a bit difficult to get through. I don't think I quite got the purpose of the book at that time, or why he was telling us about his mania in so much depth. Having finished the book, I now completely understand and can appreciate why he wrote it in the way he did. It wasn't an easy read though, and, for me, personally, it dragged on occasion. A brilliant first person account of the experience of mania with psychosis - if you want to know how it feels then this is the book to read. I noticed some criticism about the author's privilege but it can also be said that by having access to money, transport and connections further afield than home when in this mental state it can be possible to put onself in situations of greater risk to personal safety.To details in the depth he has detailed of his own personal experiences of the highs and lows of bipolar is something unique. But to then go on to detail his own journey of healing and recovery and to then question why it is not more widely available for others is inspirational.

Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing - Goodreads Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing -

This book starts of my the first few chapters describing the inside of Horatio’s head when he’s in the throes of madness. It that way, it was very chaotic and surprising. The next part described his time on the ward and the last bit was a mixture of his personal recovery and treatment plan as well as a dive into the current systems and thinking in mental health care today. So this book was both personal and factually informative. It certainly gave me new ideas and perspectives on mental well-being. And the author’s stake in his own care gave this book a personal touch. I listened to this as an audiobook read by Horatio Clare himself, which I think added to the experience since it was able to capture his emotions on the topic far better than if I had simply read the words. The book is in three parts, the first details his last months of extreme mental ill health and the effect it had on everyone around him. The second is about his time in hospital and his diagnosis and the third is about his experiences when he was discharged and the challenges he made to his diagnosis.

What to say? The description of this mans “ journey into madness” is so real it’s amazing. Written so well. Like 2018’s In a Poem Unlimited, Heavy Light is a sideways look at the history of pop music and the capitalist world in which it thrives. What’s different here is how it sounds, and how it feels. These songs capture the watershed moment when your throat closes up, your head cools off, and your tears run dry: It is when you enter what can only be described as a zone of weightless grief. It’s dense, heady, hard to grasp, but that’s what makes her music so rich. Remy casts herself as a pop star and reflects on the traumas of childhood and earth through parables and the music we grew up on. I had already read Horatio Clare's book, The Light in the Dark which was about him coming to terms with a diagnosis of a kind of extreme, SAD condition known as cyclothymia and how he attempts to weather a winter in the Yorkshire Dales. He is an extraordinary writer and his nature writing, which infuses much of his travel writing and his writing about mental health is beautiful and luminous. In this book, he continues where The Light in the Dark left off, and shares his experience of a full mania which involved hallucinations, harming himself and finally being sectioned. One of the most brilliant travel writers of our day takes us us now to that most challenging country, severe mental illness; and does so with such wit, warmth, and humanity, that, better acquainted with its terrors, we may better face our own' Reverend Richard Coles

Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing Heavy Light: A Journey Through Madness, Mania and Healing

After a lifetime of ups and downs, Horatio Clare was committed to hospital under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act.There really is a bravery in writing about a total breakdown of the senses and mental processes that make us who we are in our lived experience. It is such an unusual ordeal for most of us to comprehend, that shifting of reality and otherness of existing. The best balance came in the interview with the social worker and the nurse. I was interested though that he didn’t choose to approach the inpatient psychiatrist. It rather gave the impression that all psychiatrists are interested in his prescribing medication which felt extremely unfair as that is a profound misrepresentation. Psychotherapy originated amongst psychiatrists and is a crucial part of their training.

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