Prozac & Prayer: a brief memoir of madness is one young woman’s – Sharon Jones – story of dealing with a type of bipolar disorder. Starting in 2007 just before she was diagnosed, she uses poetry as well as prose to tell her story which includes her suicide bid and subsequent arrest on the Forth Road Bridge in April last year. The shocking thing is that she was put in jail rather than a psychiatric unit. Told with bare honesty and boldness the book has it’s longeurs but there are some fine passages and you cannot fault its still honesty. There are several passages that do their job very well in making you think about her dilemma, yet others provoke questions about the very real stigma of mental health in Scotland. A challenging but worthwhile read. Below is an extract…

“I went through the motions without a clear conscious thought. As though I’d had a knock on the head, I remained strangely calm and dazed. I could barely put the right words together to ask the driver for a cheap day return but somehow I did, and even managed a happy smile. I sat down and gazed indifferently out the window at the city getting on with its Easter Monday. Traffic was easy and in no time I saw the signs for the Forth Road Bridge. My heart jumped. The Forth Road Bridge. Of course – that’s why I had come this way. The sea, the arms of the Forth would welcome me. For years, ever since my depression got heavier and more frequent, I’d imagined jumping off the Forth Road Bridge. I love the sea, and this bridge holds particular sentimental value for me. It was the link between my two worlds in childhood. Once I crossed the bridge, I was on my way to the love and wonder that awaited me at my grandparents’ house. Later, the bridge gave me the way to escape to Aviemore, for which I’d had high hopes.”

Sharon Jones lives in Edinburgh and is passionate about changing society’s attitudes to what she calls ‘madness.’ She is also in talks with her local MSP to stop the unfair arrest of people who present suicidal behaviour.

Prozac & Prayer: a brief memoir of madness is available to buy online at Amazon, Lulu.com and from all good bookshops. She can  be contacted by email on: ladymoonwriter@hotmail.com