#memoirs

My Name Means Fire by Atash Yaghmaian.

I seem to be running into a lot of iranian mental health memoirs at the moment, but they're really good. Atash (amazing name) is in the mental health care field??? (listen guys if I knew the difference between psychologists/thereapists/councelors/social workers I wouldn't have to interrogate my sister about what she does every time I see her). She is diagnosed with DID and works to reduce stigma alongside her regular work. The memoir covers the first 18 years of her life (I want a sequel so so bad). It tells an amazing story of living with dissociation and time skips, memory gaps and gives space within the pages for everyone in her to speak and tell the story of her internal world. That was probably my favorite part because you don't always hear from everyone when you read a DID memoir. Really gave me insight into the scariness of losing time and having parts of oneself actively making other plans.

I'm bad at book reviews TBH but I did like this one. I find it hard to find good representation in published works (for bipolar not DID to be clear) so when I find something in a mental health niche I like to share with you all.