Weekly Reader: It's Kind Of A Funny Story by Ned
Vizzini; An Understanding, At Times Funny, But Always Relatable Book About
Mental Illness
By Julie Sara Porter,
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: It's Kind of a Funny Story is one of those books
that I find spookily relatable. It hits me the way books do when you see your
life told in someone else's words.
Though I am miles apart from Ned Vizzini's protagonist,
Craig Gilner in age, gender, income, and lifestyle I can see myself in him
because both of us have depression and anxiety. Many of the examples that occur
throughout Craig's narrative are uncomfortably familiar not only to me but to
anyone else with mental illness.
Craig’s depression and anxiety are ways of coping with
intense pressure from school. He is brilliant but doesn't feel excited about
anything he is learning. He can't find any interest in any school activities or
happiness in any activities at all.
The one work he enjoyed was making maps as a child, but he
destroyed them when people told him that he could never be a map maker because
“everywhere has been mapped.” He only likes to play the PlayStation and get
high with his friends.
Those of us with mental illness can understand those times
when nothing excites us and we just go through the motions. We can also
understand when we take interest in something and how others’ or our own
perceptions cloud even that interest.
The pressure increases when Craig gets accepted to a
prestigious Manhattan academy. While he considers the acceptance a victory, he
is constantly filled with anxiety and worry with each test and assignment. He
becomes obsessed with worrying about graduating, getting accepted to college,
and getting a job.
People with anxiety and depression keep fearing the worst
and worry that one failure or disappointment is going to lead to more. (Craig's
anxieties are manifested as a drill sergeant in his head that keeps pushing
Craig forward.) It's hard for us to find even slight happiness in achievements
because we are always second guessing our decisions and imaging the worst.
The book has some interesting touches that aren't often
found in other books on mental illness. While Craig is diagnosed with
depression and prescribed Zoloft fairly early on, during an upswing he believes
he is completely recovered and stops taking it only to result in worse mood
swings afterward.
Many people who are mentally ill often go through brief
periods of extreme productivity and experience happy giddy feelings usually
because of positive external moments. Sometimes the slightest disappointment is
enough to bring the euphoria down and the depression and anxiety returns
sometimes worse than before.
While Craig has suicidal thoughts, Vizzini doesn't make him
actually attempt the act. Instead after a night of calling the Suicide
Prevention Hotline, Craig decides to walk two blocks to the psychiatric
ward and voluntarily commit himself.
There are many who aren't mentally ill that believe if a
person isn't a violent threat to others or themselves, then they really don't
have a mental illness. Some throw out terms like “drama queen”, or “first world
problem” as if to dismiss those feelings and the person having them. Vizzini's
writing shows that depression and anxiety come in all forms and sometimes the
moment when someone realizes that they need help can be just as individualistic
as the symptoms preceding it.
When Craig is institutionalized in the adult section of the
psychiatric ward (the teen ward is being renovated), he bonds with the other
patients, many of whom are just as troubled as he is. There is Muqtada, Craig's
roommate who is so agoraphobic that he won't leave their room, Armelio, who
believes he is the President of the World (or the Ward anyway), and Noelle, a
potential love interest for Craig who has a history of self-mutilation.
Craig also receives help from his therapist, Dr. Minerva and
Nurse Monica, medical professionals who are truly committed to helping pull the
patients through their hospitalization.
Craig learns to sort out his anxieties and fears and to
minimize them in his life. (The drill sergeant in Craig's head even becomes
encouraging towards his recovery.) Craig also reignites his love for map making
turning his maps into works of art to be displayed in the ward. He also begins
to look forward to his release where he will leave his high-pressured academy
and begin art school. While Vizzini's book shows there is no one specific path
to recovery from mental illness, one thing that helps is to find a goal to
achieve and possibilities for a life outside of the illness.
Like other great books about mental illness, such as
Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, It's Kind of
a Funny Story humanizes the illness by giving us an understandable character to
go through it. Those who have been there can relate. I know I do.
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