I was telling everyone about this book before I read it. From friends to the swim teacher at my kid’s school. I was validating it left and right (brain).
‘Broken Minds’ by Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland, the book I’m quoted in, drew me to Rabbit because it’s unusual to have complex conversations about health outside of a meeting or disaster. Good health is a privilege that is sometimes taken for granted. ‘Broken Minds’ talk about it. We all get sick. Some of us get better, some live with the change and for others it’s the end.
At first, I picked up The Broken Mind because of a personal interest in chronic health conditions. Another drawcard was that I enjoyed Rizvi and Waterland’s memoirs ‘Not Only Lucky’ and ‘The Anti-Cool Girl’, which either completed before the age of 30-stuck on the big early lives of ambitious and successful women. I loved how he wrote with wit, humor and light. This book does this with aplomb.
‘Broken Minds’ details each writer’s journey. As a new mother, wife and career-wise, Rizvi is diagnosed out of the blue with a craniopharyngioma, a brain tumor. As a rising star in the media, Waterland had been living with multiple debilitating (at times) symptoms stemming from both nature and trauma, among various diagnoses affecting his mental and physical health since childhood.
This couple is very generous and vulnerable in sharing their experiences. They easily get involved in the nuances of very different situations. It might seem a little strange to be excited about such a serious subject, but this book feels like a unicorn.
Being sick or caring for someone who is not sick is not one-dimensional or linear. Rizvi and Waterland convey this cleverly and carefully. When something goes wrong, we turn to doctors and the Internet (!). A ‘broken mind’ is another resource in your self-care kit.
Rizvi and Waterland’s controversial and deeply personal accounts explore how being ill affects relationships, self-interest and identity, careers, how people treat you, family dynamics, making plans and finances. Nothing in life happens in isolation. This is both great and disappointing.
Each author penned a chapter, as told in the dialogue. It’s a great tempo with very different sounds and ways of telling the story. We enjoy the contrast of a matter-of-fact tone combined with emotional transparency. We see two sides of the coin, from how society treats you when faced with an immediate health event to the ongoing trauma that causes a hidden, but no less essential, illness. Chapters are interspersed with case studies and moments where they inspire us to believe. The authors point us to see how mental and physical health can be considered separate but are connected. With two authors and two stories and two different terms, Dotok was always a huge presence in the book.
Feeling like something is broken in you is complicated, similar to how you can picture brokenness. A single effect (or at the same time) is separated into a web of interconnected emotions, dead ends, events, wins, help, abuse, love, facts and unknowns.
Many people can benefit from this special book and benefit them. Perhaps you know or have someone with surprising neurological symptoms, we all have a friend struggling with an ongoing hidden illness or you may know or may be a partner, family member or friend of a health-related person. As the book’s cover simply shows it is a story “for anyone who has ever been sick or loved one”.
‘Broken Minds’ is an opportunity to broaden your understanding and empathy. I believe this is the text that will see and hear the other. Make yourself or a loved one a copy of this thoughtful, funny, comforting, provocative and informative book.
