Cracked, Not Broken ★★★☆☆

Cracked, Not Broken: Surviving and Thriving After A Suicide Attempt (Click Here To Buy)

★★★☆☆

Cracked, Not Broken: Surviving and Thriving After A Suicide Attempt by Kevin Hines is a memoir about living with bipolar disorder.

I read this as an audiobook read by the author on loan from the library.

Hines is a public speaker who tells the reader his life story. His first years of life were spent neglected by his parents who were active drug users. Hines was later put in foster care until he was adopted and had a childhood filled with very fond memories until his adopted parents divorced. When Hines was in high school, he got very into theatre and it was during this time that he had his first psychotic break. Hines became paranoid and started hearing voices commanding him to kill himself by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge. And so he did. Miraculously Hines survived. Even more miraculously, he recovered with his full motor abilities. After that, Hines fought for his mental wellness. He had more psychotic episodes and psychiatric hospitalizations, but he always fought to live and speaks to groups about that today.

Hines emphasizes the importance of routine for people living with severe mental illness as well as the difference between healed and cured. The most important things for people living with these disorders in his opinion are CBT, medication, exercise, sleep, psycho-education, sobriety, positive coping skills, and having a crisis plan.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, you can text 741741 (US) or 85258 (UK) and get connected to a crisis counselor.

If you liked Cracked, Not Broken, I also recommend A Kind of Mirraculas Story by Sandy Allen, My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh, The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang, and Marbles by Ellen Forney.

Happy reading!

Ms.Bjork