Get Me Out Of Here

Get Me Out of Here: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder by Rachel Reiland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have so many mixed feelings about this book. Of course I found it hard to read because I suffer from BPD myself and this book was written from the perspective of a person that had a lot of anger issues and suffered a lot of trauma in her childhood. There was a lot of similar content for me and that is why it took a little bit longer to read, but I did come out with this gleaming bit of wisdom : IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO HELP A PERSON WHEN THEY ARE DOWN AND IN NEED, ESPECIALLY WHEN SUFFERING FROM MENTAL ILLNESS. Reiland was super lucky to have the amount of support and the support systems that she had. Most people have half of what she had or much less. Her husband stuck by her through thick and thin, she had people in her church that didn't judge her but just helped her with her kids or sent home care package meals, her pastor was an ear in times of need, and most importantly she had a very devoted psychiatrist that was very dedicated to helping her with her recovery and her treatment. He made it clear that it was going to be a long hard process and that it was going to take a lot of work, and more importantly, that he would not give up on her. The fact that Reiland's psychiatrist was so invested really meant a lot to me because I know what it feels like to have doctors and people on your 'team' that feel once you have a diagnosis of bpd that you are lost cause. I have been with my therapist for over 5 years now and she has been a life line like no other. She has helped me through many of my addictions, she has helped me overcome violent tendencies and we are currently working on positive relationships and boundaries as well as other skills within the dbt realm. I wasn't the most keen on the fact that religion ended up helping Reiland a lot but that is not my choice, I do not believe in God. If it worked for her than I am happy that she was able to get some comfort from that.

I will say that the major disappointment of the book is that after you have read it you find out that Rachel Reiland is a pseudonym. I realize that she probably had to use a false name because some of the things she wrote about could have gotten her in big trouble but it's almost like she has duped the reader. She has told you all these dark and deep secrets about her life, some of them crushing and probably hard to even put down on paper and then she hides behind a fake name. That to me is the ultimate deception. When writing a memoir like this you need to be able to own the shit that you have been through, and one of the ways that I see someone doing that is by putting their name on their work. So even though "Rachel Reiland" didn't own her dirty laundry there is some great one liners that can be taken from reading this book. It may be a painful or informative read, depending what perspective you are reading it from but it sure is an eye opener on BPD, and there is not enough accounts of what BPD is like so it is great to see more people telling their stories.

View all my reviews

The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I give this book a solid 3 star rating. I would give it more if I enjoyed the family, love-y dove-y , tear at your heart strings type of book it was but that is just not normally the book that I reach for willingly and devour. None the less I will give it a decent review for a variety of reasons. The author took me to the various shores of Australia in the late 1920's and early 1930's. Gave beautiful descriptions that if you closed your eyes you would swear you were there and you could hear the waves crashing around you and the salt leaving a print on your skin. I was very impressed with the author's attention to detail, and not just with landscapes but right down to the description of what was in Lulu's box, especially the map. As important as the map was to the story as it was to certain characters, the author is very consistent with the dynamic that is meant to be shared and had between characters. Some you don't realize how strong the bond is until later in the story while others it is quite evident how glued together the characters are even when there are doubts about whether they should be or not. This book slightly reminded me of the Notebook, as there were parts of it that were just so comparable, even though the situation may have been completely different. This book stands strong on its character development, plot and descriptions which are a long lost art in most literature these days. Although the book does deserve a higher star rating I just cannot give it that based on my taste, but I know many people that would devour this book right up and give it a 5 star rating easily. For a first book this will be a hard act to follow but I would definitely read what is next.




View all my reviews