Susana Kaysen's Experience as a Young Adult

Susana Kaysen's Experience as a Young Adult

After a visit with a psychiatrist in 1967, Susanna Kaysen was sent to McLean Hospital in Massachusetts to be further evaluated. Her doctor recommended that she go to McLean Hospital for psychiatric evaluation and help. She was sent based on her chaotic unplanned life, a reversal of the sleep cycle, severe depression, and a history of suicidal attempts. During her year and a half stay at the hospital she began to learn about herself from a different perspective. At the end of her long stay she was finally told her diagnosis, it was called a Borderline Personality Disorder. She learned how to cope with her mood disorder in ways that would help her throughout her life.
Girl, Interrupted is an autobiography of Susanna Kaysen’s experience as a young adult dealing with a mental illness. Susanna never had a satisfactory childhood and she felt like she never met her parents’ standards, which led to her low self image. She recalled feeling emptiness inside and this led to the chain of events of her downward spiral. At one point, she did not believe she was real so she cut herself and wanted to get an x-ray to make sure she was a real person. She had suicidal thoughts and ideations because of her illness. At a time where she was feeling depressed she took fifty aspirin and chased it with a bottle of vodka then later realized it was a mistake. She woke up in the hospital, making up excuses as to why she overdosed due to a “really bad headache”.
Entering McLean Hospital, Susanna was considered one of the healthiest patients, along with her roommate, Georgina. Georgina was hospitalized for schizophrenia and said she first experienced it after an episode in a movie theater where she felt like darkness was surrounding her everywhere. Polly also suffered from schizophrenia along with depression. She set herself on fire due to her depression and was left with severe scarring on her face but all of the other patients respected her and wouldn’t dare to ask her about it....

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