Our Encounters with Madness

Dr Alec Grant is Reader in Narrative Mental Health in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Brighton. He is widely published in the fields of ethnography, autoethnography, clinical supervision, cognitive behavioural psychotherapy, and communication and interpersonal skills. His current and developing research and scholarly interests coalesce in the area of narrative inquiry and demedicalizing mental health. Francis Biley is Associate Professor at the University of Bournemouth. He has particular methodological interests in historiography, autoethnography, unitary appreciative inquiry and using the arts and humanities in health care. Clinically, he has interests in the built care environment, and in the service user movement in mental health and adult care. Hannah Walker is the Chairperson of the Dorset Mental Health Forum which, amongst other things, offers advocacy services and promotes recovery and wellbeing.

All the authors of these stories have suffered: some from what was inflicted on them as children, some from demons that seem to have been simply part of who they are or were and some the failure - at worst betrayal - of what are supposed to be helping professions. The authors have also found resources for survivial, and change, and the discovery of purpose in their lives - Which is why I understand this book as an exemplar of narrative healing. Professional intervention might begin with offering people the great gift of examples not to imitate, but from which to draw resources, which is what this book does. Professor Author Frank, from the foreword. The various authors in this book are engaged in making sense of their encounters with madness, by telling stories. Read those stories and you may well appreciate something of 'what' they have encountered. Reflect on their stories and you may well appreciate better your own 'self ' and your myriad encounters with life and its inherent madness. Professor Phil Barker, from the Foreword

• Forewords Professor Phil Barker & Professor Arthur W Frank. 1 Introduction: Learning from narrative accounts of the experience of mental health challenges Alec Grant On diagnosis 2 On hearing my diagnosis Andrew Voyce My dialogue with a diagnosis Amanda Nicol Stories of xperience 4 Flashbacks and more: My PTSD story Richard Peacocke 5 Pain: My despair Richard Peacocke 6 School: On panic, depression and suicidal thoughts Thom 7 Marianne Amanda Nicol 8 Can I ever be a good enough mother? Nicola Oliver 9 On schizophrenia Andrew Voyce 10 Alcohol and the hotel bar Henry Laxton 11 Living rough, flying high Roxanna Mullick 12 Recovery and rediscovery Sarah Nayler 13 On rejection and acceptance Hannah Walker 14 Healthy body, healthy mind Terry Bowyer 15 Up and down the mood scale Maggie Walker 16 When John met Anorexia John Evans 17 Shit happens Ali Quant Experiencing the system 18 Surviving: From silence to speaking out Helen Leigh-Phippard 19 Life is like a game of snakes and ladders Diana Byrne 20 My involvement with mental health services Andrew Voyce 21 Electroconvulsive therapy Judith Haire 22 My descent into psychosis Judith Haire 23 Performing the room: Four days on an acute ward Alec Grant 24 Freeze frame: Reflections on being in hospital Nigel Short 25 Bad and mad: Mental health problems and the criminal justice system Andrew Voyce 26 How did that happen? Service versus personal needs Jamie James 27 SEX Richard Peacocke On being a carer 28 Dementia: The end remains inevitable but the journey can be improved John Major 29 Diagnosing Clapham Junction Syndrome Sir Terry Pratchett 30 My sweet sister and I Catherine Jenkins 31 My beautiful boy got ill Maggie Lloyd 32 Archimedes and Rabbit: Me and my brother Jonathan Lloyd Abuse and survival 33 Abuse: The not-so-tender trap Marjorie Holmes 34 Entering and breaking Keith King 35 Psychiatry's Unholy Trinity - Fraud, Fear and Force Leonard Roy Frank 36 be-ing Twitch Carol Rambo 37 My life: My encounters with insanity Fran Biley 38 An epilogue: Shifting sands Fran Biley and Hannah Walker