Name: Rachel's review of The Quiet Room by Lori Schiller
Item: The Quiet Room
Rating: 5
Author: Rachel

Lori Schiller

Amanda Bennett

At seventeen Lori Schiller was the perfect child -- the only daughter of an affluent, close-knit family. Six years later she made her first suicide attempt, then wandered the streets of New York City dressed in ragged clothes, tormenting voices crying out in her mind. Lori Schiller had entered the horrifying world of full-blown schizophrenia. She began an ordeal of hospitalizations, halfway houses, relapses, more suicide attempts, and constant, withering despair. But against all odds, she survived. Now in this personal account, she tells how she did it, taking us not only into her own shattered world, but drawing on the words of the doctors who treated her and family members who suffered with her. In this new edition, Lori Schiller recounts the dramatic years following the original publication -- a period involving addiction, relapse, and ultimately, love and recovery. Moving, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting, THE QUIET ROOM is a classic testimony to the ravages of mental illness and the power of perserverance and courage.

A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness

The Quiet Room

sara 

Rachel

It’s no secret I like memoirs by people who have mental illness, but The Quiet Room goes deep. Lori Schiller is schizophrenia and manic depression (bi-polar) and the way she is able to write about her disorders brings great insight. She doesn’t remember it all and parts she felt were important that she didn’t remember she had family members or doctors write what she was like during that time. She hears voices and experiences mood swings, she lived a normal life at first with these issues, she graduated high school when it first started and did great in college before it took over her life. She tries to commit suicide, she is hospitalized and develops a drug problem.

Lori does not hold back on her emotions and actions that occurred. It allows the reader to learn and empathize with her. I liked that it is addressed there is no cure, you will always have your mental illness, so the best people can do is fight the symptoms so they can live their life. I think many people dismiss lesser disorders as being something that can be stopped and cured, that a person isn’t trying hard enough, but this book shuts that down and explains how it actually works. Lori explains the treatment process and how medications are guess work until doctors find the right combo. Her experiences at hospitals vary, some want to cure her and get her out to have a high turn over rate, but this doesn’t work for her. It’s not until she goes into long term care does she start to improve. Highly recommend reading

sara &
The Quiet Room by Lori Schiller

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The Quiet Room by Lori Schiller