Up from the Snakepit

This book is an insider's look at mental health as co-written by two men who have endured stays in psychiatric wards over a decade ago... along with their lessons learned from such an experience. They ask: "Is mental illness a salient blip of insanity in an otherwise sane life?"

They tackle the perceptions such a diagnosis brings and how to see the mental health system with a glass-half-full philosophy rather than to see the mental illness industry with a glass-half-empty approach.

They frankly discuss the realities of how a psychiatric diagnosis affects personal and public self-image as well as how a label of mental illness affects almost anyone adversely at first.

It is a lucid commentary about life before, during, and after psych ward stays with an eye on the prize of being a good and honest person who cares about truth, honor, and integrity.

It also tackles the tough questions of if an isolated psychotic episode warrants being labeled as mentally ill for life and ponders the possibility of a person living successfully without medication after any psych ward stay.

An appropriate metaphor for such an event is like riding a bike that slows to the point of losing its forward momentum to the point it wobbles so we fall. Yet, this book champions the idea that we can still get back on the bike again and ride with grace so as to rejoin Life's rat race with smiles on our face.

If you liked the movies "Conspiracy Theory," "A Beautiful Mind," and "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," then you'll enjoy this book.