Patients often search for the reasons behind their illness. They try to pinpoint and record the changes in their mental state as they occurred and to work out what improved their circumstances and what made them worse. Patient memoirs, including Sheldon's, are no different. What sets her account apart, however, is that her medical background makes her more aware of the process of mental illness as she passes through it.
Although Sheldon has never practised, her medical degree informs her understanding of her mental health now and during the many trials she has faced along the way. In a lucid, confessional style she produces a record of her experiences while considering the psychopathology, diagnosis and treatment of her anorexia and schizoaffective disorder. Her intention is to give the reader insight into mental illness as medics would themselves experience and analyse it.
For the clinician, most interesting are Sheldon's criticisms of her care. She is critical of her treatment by ex-colleagues, of misapplied diagnoses and treatment regimes, such as at the specialist eating disorder centre she attended, which seemed to her cruel in the level of discipline it demanded. Her criticism is not intended to shame those that have treated her. Instead her intention is that through accurate recollection of events as they occurred she will be able to inform her reader, whether patient or clinician. Many will feel that as unique and moving as Sheldon's struggle has been, these are sadly stories that they hear every day. Certainly, Sheldon provides a history of depression, anorexia and psychotic illness that would be familiar to most people working in mental health. If anything, her account suffers from her effort to make it as concise and clear as she can. It often seems as if she holds back from describing important aspects of her life, such as her family situation, to push on in her story.
Sheldon's account does not have the weight of accounts like William Styron's Darkness Visible, on his experience of depression, nor is it the only book available by a mental health professional on their experiences of mental illness (Undercurrents by Martha Manning, a clinical psychologist, is a good example). However, it does describe a unique and brave battle by a patient with a complicated list of psychiatric problems much closer to home. Despite Sheldon's lack of experience, her background provides a route to refresh the empathy of a tired clinician by allowing them a glimpse of what it might have been like for them to go through what their patients have experienced.
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